What If?
by Mikotoba Susato
Summary: What if, that fateful day of the apocalypse, someone else's name had caught Shiroe's attention on his friends list before Naotsugu?
1. Prologue: A sign of things to come

**Hello all! I generally write/read in the Digimon section of the site, but Log Horizon has been growing on me recently and here I am, writing a story in this section. Please R &R and enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Maybe an OC, but nothing else. Much sadness.**

* * *

 **Prologue: A sign of things to come**

* * *

Shiroe blinked.

Then he did it again.

"Eh?"

Looking around, the enchanter found himself surrounded by an unfamiliar environment that he most certainly was not in several minutes previously. He was standing in a small clearing with trees and mossy, old-looking buildings surrounding him. Most surprising of all, he found himself wearing a clothing set that he _certainly_ was not wearing a few minutes ago. In fact, this certain set of clothing looked like the set his character in the game Elder Tale. Also, if he looked closer, the scenery surrounding him also reminded him of the game.

Wait…

Shiroe put two and two together quickly. The confused expression on his face quickly became shock as the only possibility available came to mind.

He was in the game, Elder Tale.

"No, that can't be right." Shiroe remarked to himself as he began to walk forward. Passing all the mossy buildings, he looked around for any sign of life or people that could possibly explain what was going on, but nothing was visible, minus the occasional gecko.

"I need to get somewhere where I can see a larger area…" Shiroe muttered as he continued to look around. Spotting a stone staircase nearby, he quickly moved to it, walking up to the top. Reaching the top, he quickly moved to the other edge.

"Now I can take a look-"

Shiroe was suddenly cut off as he was stunned into silence at what was before him. A giant tree was there.

"The Silverleaf Tree! So this really is…"

The sight had confirmed what he had originally concluded. He was currently in Akihabara, within the game Elder Tale.

* * *

Shiroe walked slowly through the crowded area below the tree, looking around at all the confused adventures that were no doubt in the same predicament as he was. After sighting the tree, Shiroe had noticed the gaggle of people down below, so he had quickly gotten off the wall and moved toward the area.

What met him was a scene of pure chaos.  
Other adventurers were in a total state of panic. Many of them were fighting each other, blaming everyone for their current ordeal. Others were taking their anger out on the shopkeepers in the area. Yet others were simply sitting on the ground, empty eyes, not willing to accept their current situation or in extreme denial.

It was a pitiful sight.

Shiroe continued walking through the area, taking in all the sights. All of a sudden, he lurched forward as his foot caught on something, tripping him up and causing him to fall onto the ground.

"Ow…" Looking up from where he fell, Shiroe suddenly saw a bunch of random button appear out of nowhere, just floating in the air in front of him. Past the buttons, he could see what looked like HP bars appearing near each individual adventurer.

"Wait, could this be…a status screen?" Shiroe remarked in shock. "Does that mean…" Getting up from the ground, Shiroe immediately moved his hand over the "item" button, pressing it. As soon as he did so, a large amount of other words appeared in the air of items that Shiroe knew he had been keeping on his person.

"I can control it…"

All of a sudden, something at the bottom of his sight caught his attention. Quickly looking at it, Shiroe realized that it was the "log out" button as was customary in any game's status screen. Quickly moving his finger to press it, Shiroe watched as a red "not available" sign appeared on the button, which also greyed-out as he touched it.

"No good…it won't work."

Shiroe continued to move his eyes down the status screen, reviewing what was available to him.

"Wait, what's this?" he asked as his eyes latched onto a button semi-hidden in the lower right area. Reading it, he realized with a jolt of exhilaration that it was his friends list.

Eyes widening at his discovery, Shiroe immediately hammered the button, which opened up a drop-down list. Looking at the list, Shiroe immediately started reading the names of people that he knew in-game.

"Let's see…" Shiroe moved his hand out and began scrolling down the list. Noticing that several names were greyed out instead of white, Shiroe assumed that a white name was a player who was also stuck in the game at the minute. As he continued scrolling, a certain name made him stop. A certain slightly-insane former tea party leader's name was greyed out, signaling that said ex-leader was not online, but just the thought of what she would be doing in this situation brought a smile to Shiroe's face.

All of a sudden, with a ping, the name in question turned from grey to white.

Shiroe stared at it.

"Eh?"

He didn't have time to react any further, as another window popped up in front of him on the status screen. Focusing on it immediately, Shiroe found that it was an incoming call from someone.

"Who's calling?" he asked himself as he looked at the name. Reading it, his eyes widened in shock and his normally composed figure betrayed him.

"Kanami-san?!"

* * *

 **I'll try to update whenever I find free time. I recently uninstalled a bunch of games because my computer needed space, so I should have time.**

 **Please drop a review if you have the time!**


	2. Dai-Saigai I

**Well, I'm back once again and typing (at 4AM in the morning because why am I still up ._.). Thanks to the review and follows I got on the prologue and please R &R chapter 1 as well (It's basically what motivates me not to procrastinate ._.)**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: Log Horizon is not mine.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Dai-Saigai I (The Apocalypse Part I)**

* * *

Shiroe quickly hurried in the direction of the Silverleaf tree, still not completely believing the conversation that had just taken place less than a minute ago. In a matter of minutes, he had gone from waking up in a game to talking with someone he hadn't had any contact in a couple years (who shouldn't even have shown up on his friends list on this server in the first place – another point Shiroe noted).

In short, the past few minutes had been absolutely surreal, and Shiroe was hurrying to the agreed meeting place in order to see if a certain crazy former swashbuckler had any answers to the numerous questions going on in his mind.

"Yo-ho! Shiro-kun!"

The first sight that met Shiroe's eyes when he arrived at the base of the tree was one all-to-familiar to him. There was an overeager, overexcited figure waiting for him, jumping up and down and waving wildly. As he approached, Shiroe also noticed another, more unfamiliar, figure a few yards behind the first one, leaning against the Silverleaf tree, looking at him as well.

"Shiro-kun!" Kanami (for who else would the overexcited figure be) shouted once again as she bounded to stand in front of her target (causing her target to take a step back in reaction). "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Eh…yeah, it has been, hasn't it?" Shiroe replied sheepishly. Seeing Kanami hadn't changed at all since moving to Europe, Shiroe had a bad feeling in the back of his mind that he would come to regret answering the call a few minutes ago. Shifting his eyes to the right a bit, Kanami's status screen caught his attention.

"So you're a monk now?" asked Shiroe. Kanami nodded energetically.

"Since I had to start over on a new account on the Europe server after I moved, I decided to give something else a try." She answered.

"That makes sense-wait, that's not what I wanted to ask!" Shiroe interrupted himself. "How are you here? You shouldn't have been able to contact me with an account on a different server, let alone be here in Akiba."

"Ahahaha!" Kanami laughed loudly in response to Shiroe's bewilderment. "But you forget Shiro-kun, there is a way around that!"

"…in short, Kanami called me _, while I was in the middle of supertesting the next planned expansion I should add_ , with something important, that turned out to be this." said the figure Shiroe had noticed earlier. Shiroe and Kanami both turned their attentions to the other person present in response to the comment.

"Sakura…san?" asked Shiroe hesitantly, reading the figure's status screen and not recognizing the name.

"…my strategist ***** , you honestly do not recognize me?" asked the girl, not looking amused in the slightest as she did so. Something about her words clicked in Shiroe's mind, and he looked at her one more time.

"Wait…Sora-chan, is that you?!" he exclaimed in surprised, a shocked expression appearing on his face. The girl nodded, a satisfied expression on her face.

"As expected of my strategist: to recognize me so fast despite not being in the character I normally am when playing with you."

"As expected of my bus guide!" Kanami exclaimed, patting (slamming) Shiroe on the back as she did so.

" _I'm really, really starting to think that meeting these two is one of the worst ideas I've ever had."_ Shiroe privately thought to himself.

* * *

"So." Shiroe said after the other two had calmed down a bit. "How did Kanami-san get back onto this server?"

"She isn't on this server per-say." Sakura answered. "It's basically just a bit of mumbo-jumbo that I managed to put together so she can experience the expansion's opening moments as well."

"What do you mean?" asked Shiroe. Sakura cleared her throat before continuing.

"Let me start at the beginning of today. About three hours ago, I received an in-game call from Kanami while I was on the supertest server, the details of which I still don't know how she managed to do so." Sakura glanced over at Kanami who was busy excitedly looking around at everything. "Anyhow, Kanami told me that she had something important to talk about, and it sounded urgent enough so I complied. However, since I was still in the middle of supertesting, I bent a rule or two and hopped over to the main server on my supertest account since I was expecting it to be a quick thing."

"And I take it what she wanted was to see if there was a way to get to the Japan server to experience the launch of the expansion?" asked Shiroe. Sakura nodded to confirm his suspicions, causing Shiroe to let out an exhausted sigh.

"I should have guessed. And considering she's here, I take it you found a way?"

Sakura nodded.

"Supertesters, to an extent, have region-free accounts since we often have to play on different servers to test out specific bugs and other items to get them fixed." She explained. "We also have minor…server GM-style options, I suppose you can call it, that allows us to teleport other players, even if they are region locked to other servers, as long as the supertester in question remains online on that server with them."

Shiroe sighed in response once again, finally understanding the situation. However, after a second, he jerked his head up again and grabbed Sakura by both shoulders, causing the girl to widen her eyes in surprise.

"My strategist? What's wrong?" she asked, a little concerned.

"Do you still have any of those supertester controls now?" asked Shiroe. Sakura shook her head in regret.

"Nope. That was one of the first things I tried when we figured out we were trapped in here. I don't even have the option anymore."

Shiroe released the girl, taking a few steps back in disappointment.

"So I suppose we're on our own in here." He remarked.

"Oh come on, Shiro-kun!" Kanami exclaimed from somewhere to his right, causing Shiroe to look over at her. "It's a world full of possibilities! We should make the most of it and just charge right in!"

"…well at least that hasn't changed in two years." Shiroe remarked as he watched Kanami.

"I would honestly be surprised if she did." Sakura replied.

"Oh! Isn't that Naotsugu-kun over on the other side of the lake?"

Both Shiroe and Sakura whipped their heads in Kanami's direction in response to her comment.

"What?!"

* * *

"Oi! Shiroe!" a certain armor-clad guardian called out and Shiroe approached (Sakura and Kanami were making their way down a bit slowly, thus were lagging behind).

"Naotsugu…" Shiroe replied in relief at seeing yet another old friend he hadn't seen in a while. The guardian's status screen revealed Naotsugu's stats, which were exactly the same as Shiroe had remembered it.

"Hm? What's up?" Naotsugu asked, noting the look on Shiroe's face.

"Oh, it's just that you look the way I pictured you." Shiroe responded. Naotsugu laughed at the response.

"So do you." The guardian replied. "An intelligent man, with glasses and nasty, beady eyes."

Shiroe made a face and turned away to look at the lake, causing Naotsugu to laugh once again.

"…my race is supposed to be Half-Alv…" Shiroe muttered to himself, looking at his reflection in the lake.

"So," Naotsugu continued, apparently not hearing Shiroe's comment. "I log in for the first time in two years, and I find myself here. What the hell's going on? Do you know anything, evil-glasses?"

"I don't know either." Shiroe responded calmly, although he did make a face at Naotsugu's description of him. "But…it appears we're in the world of Elder Tale."

Naotsugu sighed, with a 'what is this scene that comes straight out of an anime plotline' face.

"Wasn't today the day they were planning to release the latest expansion?" Shiroe half-asked, half-remarked.

"Yeah, The Novasphere Pioneers." Naotsugu replied. "That's the reason I logged on again for the first time in two years. That, and that my work is finally starting to settle down once again."

"Up until the second they released the update, I can still remember everything." Shiroe replied. "And the next thing I knew afterwards, I was here."

"Same with me." Naotsugu replied. "This is definitely Akihabara; I've seen it enough times in-game to be sure of that." He sighed before continuing: "But the sky stretches much further."  
"Yeah." Shiroe said. He bent down to touch a mossy rock on the lake's side, noting the feel of the moss itself: "And it definitely feels like I'm really touching it."

"Which means…" Naotsugu began.

"I guess this isn't a dream." Shiroe concluded.

Naotsugu gave an exasperated sigh.

"So I guess we're actually in the game, huh?" he remarked. "I thought that only happened in fantasy novels. You think we can get home?"

"I don't know." Shiroe responded truthfully. "How did we even get here in the first place?"

"Yeah."

"I know…we may not be able to return quickly." Shiroe continued. "Which means…we should be ready." He adjusted his glasses at the conclusion of his remark, causing an evil twinkle.

"What do we do?" asked Naotsugu.

"Let's gather information. We need to know more about this world." Shiroe responded.

"That's true." Naotsugu replied. "Good to see you as calm and collected as always. I'm counting on you, strategist."

"Calm isn't the word I'd choose. About that…" Shiroe began, laughing nervously.

"And it's good that one certain person isn't here. I know she'd be all excited over this situation." Naotsugu let out a joyful, booming laugh at his own comment, causing Shiroe to sweatdrop even more.

"About that…" he tried to continue once again.

"Well, that person moved to Europe two years ago, so we don't have to worry about her insane tactics anymore." Naotsugu announced loudly.

"About that…"

"Oh~ It really is Naotsugu-kun!" came 'that certain person's voice' that Naotsugu was talking about, causing the Guardian to instantly freeze. Color drained from his face as he slowly turned toward the origin of the voice.

What met his gaze was the worst possible outcome for him: A grinning all-too-familiar face waving a 'V for victory' sign in the air.

"…You can't be serious." was all Naotsugu managed to say.

"I have to admit, that reaction was blander than I was expecting." Sakura remarked from her position behind Kanami.

* * *

"Eh? This person is Sora-chan?" exclaimed Naotsugu, pointing a finger at Sakura.

Shiroe nodded in confirmation.

"Apparently, this is her main account; the one she uses on supertest." Shiroe explained. "She's also the reason that Kanami-san is also here with us at the moment."

"I can't believe it…" Naotsugu remarked, staring at Sakura even more heavily. Noting the look on Naotsugu's face, Sakura took a single step back.

"Let's see…name, Sakura; race, human; level…100?!" Naotsugu exclaimed, falling over in surprise. Sakura sighed at the response.

"It's not surprising considering this account is set up to test the _next_ expansion after Novasphere." she replied. "Although it's good to see you haven't changed much since the last time I saw you Naotsugu."

"That is an interesting point." Shiroe pipped in, looking closely at Sakura's status screen. "You're already at the level cap for this expansion."

"As I said…" Sakura started once again, a tiny tone of annoyance creeping into her voice. She was interrupted, however, by Shiroe.

"Wait, class: Gunner?" Shiroe remarked, noticing something strange about the girl's class emblem. "Sub-class, Informa?"

"The Informa subclass is given to all supertesters." Sakura explained. "Although it's usually written as 'information.' Mine is listed as Informa due to my status as a former alpha tester as well."

"Huh." Shiroe remarked. "And what about the class? That's not one of the twelve classes of Elder Tale."

"It's a class that was originally in the game during alpha stage, but was taken out because it was virtually impossible to balance, as it was always too overpowered." Sakura answered. "Since this account was supposed to be only used for supertesting, I was allowed to continue to have this class despite its removal, as a reward for both alpha-testing and agreeing to supertest. A short explanation would be that it's a ranged version of the Assassin class; high alpha, high critical, high accuracy, non-existent armor, low speed, lowest hp value in the game."

"Talk about how to be standoutish." Naotsugu jokingly remarked. Sakura glared at him, drawing her rifle from her inventory and jamming it into Naotsugu's face.

"My strategist, may I shoot this idiot?" she asked.

"STOPSTOPSTOP, that'll really, really hurt if you do so!" Naotsugu exclaimed, diving out of the way of the rifle's barrel.

"No, Naotsugu is right." Said Shiroe. "Since Sakura's character stands out so much, if anyone else noticed she would never hear the end of it."

"That is a good point…" Sakura remarked, putting away her rifle (to Naotsugu's immense relief). "Especially in this current state of panic, nobody knows what anyone else would be willing to do. We need information about this new world we're trapped in before doing anything else."

"Then let's go!" Kanami bounded right into the conversation. "There's no time to waste; let's go my bus guide!"

With that, the overeager monk grabbed Shiroe, slung him over her shoulder, and ran off in a cloud of dust toward Akihabara's center, the enchanter's screams following in their wake.

Sakura and Naotsugu glanced at each other before shrugging and following behind at a brisk pace.

"She'll never change, will she?"

"That might be for the better, actually. I wouldn't know what to do if she had changed."

"Speaking of which, nobody mentioned this before, but while I know this wasn't what you were expecting, welcome back to the game, Naotsugu."

"Osu!"

* * *

 **End Dai-Saigai Part I**

* * *

 ***= She literally says "My Strategist"**

 **Well, chapter one is finished. I'm a little disappointed it took this long, but at least I got it out ^^;**

 **Please R &R and enjoy, as that's my main motivation for continuing to write stories: for others to have a good laugh and some fun! :D**

 **Please look forward to the next chapter: Dai-Saigai Part II!**

* * *

 **Sakura's Status [For future reference]:**

 **Name: Sakura (Account with the DTP: Sora)**

 **Level: 100 (Sora: 90)**

 **Class: Gunner (Sora: Assassin)**

 **Sub-class: Informa (Sora: Scribe)**

 **Age: 15 (Industrial High School, First Year)**

 **HP: 7582**

 **MP: 1040**

 **Bio (by Naotsugu): Generally emotionless girl with short, black hair. Always speaks in the old tongue/dialect. About 5' 6". B-cup. Always refers to Shiroe as "My Strategist." Always threatened death and destruction upon me while in the DTP. What did I ever do to deserve her wrath?! Being a pervert is my natu- [The rest is illegible due to a blood stain running across the paper]**


	3. Dai-Saigai II

**I'm back again with another chapter! Please R &R and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: Don't own anything.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Dai Saigai II (The Apocalypse Part II)**

* * *

"The buildings and roads around here are just as I remember them." Shiroe remarked as the group walked down the main street of Akihabara, specifically walking past the cathedral at that moment (Sakura and Naotsugu had finally caught up to Kanami after a few minutes and convinced her to let Shiroe down, which had led to the current point).

"Just like the game." Naotsugu added from behind the enchanter.

"It seems like we can use our items, magic, and skills as well." Sakura remarked, pulling a potion from her bag and looking at it for a moment before putting it back.

"But we can't log out." Naotsugu sighed dejectedly, shoulders slumping as he did so. Kanami gave a hardy laugh from in front of him.

"Isn't that a good thing? We've got a whole new world of possibilities to explore and experience!" She exclaimed loudly. "I'm looking forward to it!"

"That's one way of looking at it…" Shiroe replied, while Sakura rolled her eyes from the back of the group.

They continued walking on for a little bit, before coming up upon a familiar bridge underneath an archway.

"Want to take a look at the outside zone?" asked Naotsugu.

"No, not yet." Shiroe replied, shifting his gaze and walking off to the right. The rest of the group followed him down the main street, populated by dejected and worried adventurers on both sides.

"I'm sure there's monsters out there!" Shiroe heard one of them remark.

"No way!"

"You go check it out."

"Hell no! You go!"

"What's going to happen to us?"

"Shut up!"

"Someone! Someone help me!"

"What a cheerfully optimistic group here." Sakura remarked dryly as they continued to walk on. "Totally the opposite of a certain chaos creator that we have with us."

"Who are you talking about?" asked Kanami. Sakura's only reply was to sigh and facepalm.

Unbeknownst to the group, however, they were being spied upon by a figure on the top floor of a ruined building. The figure continued watching as Shiroe and the group continued to move on.

* * *

"If you're back in the game, your work must have calmed down quite a lot Naotsugu." Shiroe remarked after a little while.

"Yeah." Naotsugu replied. "What really sucks is that there's no cute girls at work."

"Probably beneficial to you." Sakura's voice came from behind the two. "Or else we'll be reading about someone we know being sent to jail for sexual harassment."

Naotsugu paused before turning back to face Sakura.

"You want to fight, chibi?"

"My strategist, may I shoot this idiot?"

Shiroe sighed as he watched the two stare each other down, lightning bolts practically flying from each's eyes.

"Who cares?" he remarked, attempting to defuse the potentially potent situation.

"What was that?" Naotsugu turned his gaze towards Shiroe. "You're just a closet pervert!"

"My strategist is not a closet anything!" Sakura replied loudly, causing Naotsugu to once again turn his gaze toward the gunner.

"There are two types of men in this world, chibi." Naotsugu explained hostilely. "Open perverts who admit it, and closet perverts who won't! I am the former! And I love PANTIES!" The guardian bellowed out the last word, causing a bunch of birds in a nearby tree to fly away in panic.

"Must…resist…" It was taking practically all of Sakura's self-control to stop herself from shooting Naotsugu (she had taken out her rifle from her inventory and was determinedly trying not to raise it to point at a certain guardian).

Naotsugu, apparently not seeing his life in peril, turned his glare towards Shiroe.

"You are the latter." He continued, pointing at the enchanter.

Shiroe sighed.

"Yeah, yeah." He remarked as he turned away and continued walking on.

"And I know you love them too!" Naotsugu called after Shiroe's retreating back.

Sakura finally snapped. Raising her rifle, she pointed it at the back of Naotsugu's head and pulled the trigger.

A shot rang out.

"THAT HURTS!"

Kanami continued laughing as she surveyed the entire situation.

"I feel right at home again!" she exclaimed.

* * *

"That was cruel, chibi." Naotsugu remarked as he drank a potion while the group walked on. Sakura's shot had taken off nearly half his entire HP pool.

"You deserved it for being an idiot." Was the gunner's only reply. The group walked on in silence for a little bit, until Shiroe stumbled over something and fell to the ground.

"Shiroe-kun, what's wrong?" Kanami asked.

"Kanami-san," Shiroe said as he used his staff to help himself up. "How tall are you? In real life?"

"The same height as my avatar." Kanami answered. "You should know, Shiroe-kun. Why do you ask?"

At that moment, a small rock bounced behind Kanami, causing the monk to move her eyes to the left side of her vision arc.

"My character is taller than I really am." Shiroe answered as another small rock flew behind him this time. "So this body doesn't feel quite right." He finished, while at the same time moving his eyes to the right side of his vision arc.

"That's what you get for showing off." Naotsugu put in, also moving his eyes to look in the direction the rocks were coming from. "Anyways…"

"To some degree, your game character reflects your real self." Sakura finished Naotsugu's sentence, as the girl also moved her eyes in the same direction as the other three.

Just then, a huge rock fell into the water near the group, causing them to gasp in surprise.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Naotsugu yelled at the figure they had noticed that was throwing the rocks at them. "That's dangerous!"

"Hm?" Shiroe gave a start as he looked at the figure on the top floor of a ruined building. "Aren't you…Akatsuki-san!"

Kanami turned to look at the enchanter.

"What? You know him?"

"We were in a party together." Shiroe explained. "Not much of a talker, but a good assassin."

"As good as Sora-chan?" asked Kanami, patting the gunner on the back as she talked about her (possibly a little too hard, as the force of the blows caused Sakura to stumble a bit).

Shiroe laughed nervously. Making a motion to the others, he walked toward the building Akatsuki was in, the rest of the group following closely behind.

* * *

The group reached the floor that they had spotted Akatsuki in and walked through the entrance door to the room. Sure enough, the assassin was standing there, waiting for them in the middle of the room.

"So you were here too, Akatsuki-san." Shiroe called out as they approached.

"I'm Naotsugu, a guardian." Said guardian cut Shiroe off, causing the enchanter to look at him strangely. "Whether you're an open pervert or not, let's get along!" he gave a thumbs up as he finished the sentence, while behind him, Shiroe sighed and an annoyed mark appeared on Sakura's forehead.

"You say that to someone you just met?" Shiroe asked Naotsugu, a little incredulously.

"Yep!" The guardian replied, grinning.

Just then, Akatsuki spoke:

"Shiroe-dono, I've been looking for you." The assassin said.

"Eh?" Shiroe gave a start as he heard the assassin's voice.

"I want you to sell me a potion." The assassin continued. "An appearance-changing potion."

"That voice…" Sakura started.

"Akatsuki-san…you're a girl?!" Shiroe finished the gunner's sentence for her. "No wonder you didn't speak much…"

Behind him, Kanami gave another cheerful laugh.

"This world just keeps getting better and better by the moment!" she exclaimed, causing the other four in the room to sweatdrop at her.

* * *

At the same time outside, a young boy and girl walked down the street, holding hands. By the look of their clothes, the girl was a Kannagi-class while the boy was a Samurai-class character.

* * *

"Appearance-changing potions…" Naotsugu remarked as the four waited while Akatsuki was unscrewing the bottle behind a screen. "Those are rare. They only distributed them once."

"Really?" asked Sakura. "I have quite a bit of a supply of them on this character."

"Sakura-chan…" Shiroe started. "I see you're not used to the life of a regular player."

"What does that mean?" the gunner replied, looking confused. Shiroe sighed.

"I remembered Shiroe-dono had one." Akatsuki remarked from behind the screen. Naotsugu made an over-exaggerated sneaking motion toward the screen, only to stop as he heard the click of a rifle being primed as well as a certain monk slamming her fists together threateningly behind him.

"I thought you weren't using voice chat because you were playing as an assassin." Shiroe remarked to Akatsuki, as the assassin put the potion to her (his?) lips and started drinking. Just then, a bright light flashed from behind the screen and Akatsuki gave out a scream as her body was engulfed by it.

"Are you ok?" asked Shiroe. However, the group's faces all turned to shock as they heard the sounds of bones cracking and more horrifying screaming from behind the screen. Sakura in particular opened her inventory and immediately destroyed the entire stack of appearance-changing potions that she had.

After a little bit, the light subsided and a figure emerged from behind the screen.

"It's alright now." The figure remarked, as Shiroe and Naotsugu both stared, wide-eyed.

"She's hot!" Naotsugu remarked as they stared at what was obviously a female person, her status screen showing that she was indeed the same Akatsuki (Lv. 90 Human Assassin). "The real deal!"

"You saved me." Akatsuki remarked. "I really appreciate it."

"I-it's fine." Shiroe replied, still shocked at the revelation.

* * *

Outside, the boy-girl Kannagi-Samurai pair continued to walk down the path, although they were now being followed by a shady group of characters.

* * *

"I retract my previous statement." Naotsugu announced from behind Shiroe, causing everyone's eyes to turn toward him. The five had walked outside after Akatsuki's transformation, where it was now night. Kanami and Sakura were chatting in a corner, while Shiroe was fiddling with his menu, Naotsugu was sitting on a pile of stone rubble, and Akatsuki was stretching her newly-transformed body.

"You can't be an open pervert or a closet one because…" Naotsugu continued. "YOU AREN'T A MAN!"

"Shiroe-dono, is there something wrong with him?" Akatsuki asked as she continued to stretch.

"There are many things wrong with him." Shiroe replied, not even looking up from his status screen.

"Why is that?!" Naotsugu yelled from where he was sitting.

"In any case, he's messed up." Akatsuki continued, completely ignoring Naotsugu's remark.

"So, Akatsuki-san." Shiroe started, causing the assassin to look at him. "Did you adjust your character to be closer to your original size?"

"Yes." Akatsuki replied.

"You should have done that in the first place." Naotsugu chipped in from where he was still sitting. Akatsuki paused her stretch to turn and look at him.

"Games are fun because you can do things you couldn't do in real life, right?" she asked rhetorically. "But once I was stuck here, it was very inconvenient."

"Inconvenient?" Naotsugu asked, looking confused. After a moment, a lightbulb appeared above his head. "Ah! You mean like the bathroom, right?"

BANG.

The sound symbolized Akatsuki's knee making contact with the side of Naotsugu's face. Off to the side, Sakura nodded approvingly.

"Shiroe-dono, is it alright if I knee this strange man in the face?" Akatsuki asked immediately thereafter.

"Ask BEFORE you do it, shrimp!" Naotsugu yelled at the assassin, holding his nose in pain. "You're just like the other chibi!"

"Don't call me a shrimp!" Akatsuki yelled back at Naotsugu. Shiroe sighed.

Akatsuki stared at Naotsugu for a moment before turning her attention back to Shiroe.

"So," she started. "How much do I owe you for the potion?"

"Eh?" the question caught Shiroe by surprise. "Ah, don't worry about it."

"I can't do that." Akatsuki replied quickly. "I don't want anyone saying that I wouldn't repay a favor."

Noticing the assassin's completely honest look as she said that, Shiroe took a step back before replying:

"But…"

"If it's that big of a deal," Naotsugu butted in, "You can show your bre- ***** "

BANG.

Akatsuki's knee made contact with the side of Naotsugu's face once again, sending the guardian spinning away.

"Shiroe-dono, is it alright if I knee this pervert ****** man in the face?" Akatsuki asked once again, pointing at said 'pervert man.'

"I said ask BEFORE you do it!" Naotsugu yelled at the assassin from where he had landed. "And I didn't even finish!"

"You were about to say something bad." Akatsuki replied, crossing her arms across her chest.

"I was but…" Naotsugu admitted. He didn't finish the sentence, however, as he grinned sheepishly and picked himself up.

"So what are you going to do now?" he asked as the guardian picked himself up.

"I don't know." Akatsuki admitted.

"Why don't you stay with us for a while?" called out Kanami from where she was still chatting with Sakura. "The more the merrier anyhow. My bus guide, please explain why!"

Shiroe sweatdropped at the title. However, he did see why Kanami had made the suggestion, as they certainly couldn't leave Akatsuki by herself in the current situation.

"Akatsuki-san." Shiroe started, causing the assassin to look at him. "Didn't you refuse to join a guild?"

"Assassins are lone wolves." Akatsuki replied confidently.

"We aren't in one either." Shiroe immediately replied. "But right now, I think it's better to stay in a group than to go alone."

"Are you alright with that, Shiroe-dono?" asked Akatsuki, a note of concern creeping into her voice.

Shiroe smiled back at the girl.

"We'd be happy to have you." He replied. Behind him, Kanami and Sakura both gave thumbs up at her.

"I see…" Akatsuki said. She dropped to one knee, bowing toward Shiroe (causing the enchanter to be taken aback). "Then, as a ninja, I will revere you as my lord."

"Ninja? Lord?" asked Shiroe, a question mark appearing above his head.

"Wasn't she an assassin?" Naotsugu asked Shiroe.

"You saved me from the dire fate of being transformed into a man." Akatsuki continued, paying no heed to their questions. "Thus, I must work to repay you. That is what requiting a debt means. From now on, as your ninja, I shall protect you."

A twinkle appeared in Akatsuki's eyes as she said that, causing both Shiroe and Naotsugu to sweatdrop at her frankness honesty.

"Well, um…thanks." Was all Shiroe was able to reply. Behind him, Naotsugu laughed.

"Then we're a team. You have a left arm now, evil glasses!" he exclaimed, patting Shiroe on the back.

"Left arm?" Akatsuki asked, confused.

"Don't worry about it." Shiroe immediately replied.

"Then, my lord, I hope you don't mind if I ask a question to you."

"Eh? What is it?" Shiroe asked.

"That one girl over there, Sakura was it? Her status is quite strange indeed." Akatsuki asked. "Is there an explanation for her max level, unique class, and subclass?"

"Well, you see…" Shiroe began to explain.

* * *

At the same time that Shiroe was explaining Sakura to Akatsuki, said girl and Kanami were standing a bit behind the three, looking at them.

"Well now." Kanami said, laughing. "We're growing stronger! And Shiro-kun got himself a left arm as well." She turned her gazed upon Sakura, a teasing grin on her face. "Do you feel your position threated at all, 'Right Arm of the Evil Glasses?'"

Sakura's gaze never left Akatsuki as she replied simply:

"No. I intend to remain as my strategist's main sword and partner."

Kanami laughed as she patted the girl on the back after her reply (causing her to stumble once again from the force).

"That's the Sora-chan I know!" she exclaimed. Sakura's face turned a little red and she turned away at Kanami's remark.

* * *

 **End Dai-Saigai II**

* * *

 *** = I'm taking a guess here. In the anime, Naotsugu clearly says the word "Oppai" before being kneed by Akatsuki (which translates as chest/breasts depending on gender or situation), so I'm guessing at what he was trying to say.**

 **** = Some translations would read Akatsuki once again saying "strange man," but she changes her sentence this time to include the word "hentai" in this sentence, which changes the meaning in this situation to "pervert/ecchi man."**

* * *

 **Once again, another chapter finished! I actually typed this up two days ago, forgot to finish it (I didn't have the last paragraph written) and thus, didn't get it out until today ^^;**

 **With that said, please R &R and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's my main motivation to keep updating frequently, seeing people enjoy the fanfic!**

 **I'll see you in the next chapter, Dai-Saigai III!**


	4. Dai-Saigai III

**That moment you re-read the last chapter and figure out you made quite a big mistake in it. Whoops. _**

 **Anyhow, I'm back with the next chapter of this story. Please R &R and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Dai Saigai III (The Apocalypse Part III)**

* * *

The following morning, Shiroe and the others found themselves once again walking down Akihabara's main shopping street. Akatsuki led the group, followed closely by Shiroe and Naotsugu, while Kanami and Sakura brought up the rear.

"Is it just me, or aren't there more People of the Land around than before?" Naotsugu remarked as they walked past the lined-up stalls.

"It seems like it, doesn't it?" Shiroe replied, looking around at the mix of adventurers and Landers that were mingling in the area. What was interesting to him was the number of shops owned by Landers that were running perfectly normally, just like in the game.

"Want to buy something, guys?" called out one female shop owner to Shiroe and his group; right on queue to what Shiroe was thinking.

"You mean we can actually eat these?" Naotsugu asked as the group wandered over to the stalls to look at the wares (food and fruit). Just then, while the group was looking at the (somehow sparkling) food, someone's stomach started growling from hunger. A quick look at the group revealed three culprints: Naotsugu, Shiroe, and a very sheepish-looking and nervously-laughing Kanami.

Noting his own stomach, Naotsugu turned his glare upon the food in the stall once again.

"No time to waste thinking about it!" he exclaimed, raising his hands in an apparent attempt to grab as much food as he possibly could carry.

"I'll take rice dumplings and green tea." Came Akatsuki's voice from behind them. Quickly turning around, the rest of the group found that Akatsuki had gone ahead to one of the other stalls without telling the others and was already ordering.

Shiroe sweatdropped at the sight.

* * *

The amount of food in front of the group was a sight for sore eyes. Cake, pizza, turkey legs, sandwiches, cola; the amount was basically enough to feed an entire family of six and still have some left over.

However, as was evident from the anime-style tears that were leaking down the faces of those eating, the food itself seemed to be an issue.

"What is this…" Naotsugu managed to remark while munching half-hazardly on a hamburger.

"They all taste the same…" Shiroe added from where he was nibbling on another hamburger.

"This…" started Akatsuki from her position munching on a rice dumpling.

"It feels like a soggy cracker, without salt." Sakura finished, putting down her dumpling, apparently not being able to stomach any more.

"And all the drinks taste like water." Kanami remarked from where she was unhappily putting down a bottle of green tea. "They expect us to live on this?!" she flailed her arms about in obvious unhappiness, causing the rest of the group to sweatdrop while watching her actions, which resembled that of a small child.

"It could be worse…" Shiroe remarked as he put down his burger. Just then, a sound ping rang out in his ear, causing the enchanter to look up suddenly.

"Eh? What's up?" asked Naotsugu, who had noticed Shiroe's reaction while attempting to force down the rest of the hamburger.

"Someone's calling me." Shiroe replied, bringing up his menu screen and looking at it. "Who is it?" he asked himself while pressing the 'incoming call button' that was flashing on said menu screen. As he did so, a small popup appeared, showing the name, guild, and a small chibi figure of the person who was calling.

Shiroe's eyes widened as he looked at the name on the call screen.

"Ah!"

* * *

"From Marielle-san?" asked Naotsugu.

The group had finished up as much of the food as they could possibly stomach (which didn't even amount to 20% of the total original food supply) before heading off toward Akihabara's guild building after Shiroe's call. From the enchanter's look during the call, the rest of the group could tell it was about something serious and didn't question Shiroe's motives in leading them toward the building.

"Yeah," Shiroe replied to Naotsugu's question as the group walked through the doors of the guild building and past the bank. "She leads the guild known as the Crescent Moon Alliance."

"I see." Sakura replied.

"Still though," Naotsugu remarked while looking all around at the guild building's interior design. "It's weird how the guild building consists of nothing but doors."

"Each guild hall has its own zone." Shiroe explained, utilizing the knowledge that he had picked up when chatting with Marielle earlier.

Naotsugu sighed at his response.

"Only the really weird stuff is still like a game." The guardian remarked as Shiroe stopped at a certain door and grasped the handle. Opening it, the group walked in to find themselves standing in the middle of a lavishly decorated room, complete with stuffed animals lining the fireplace's mantle and a large picture of a dog above it (that Sakura personally found somewhat creepy and/or disturbing).

"How cute." Akatsuki remarked while looking at the picture, causing the gunner to give her an 'are you serious' look from behind her.

"This is the guild master's room?" asked Naotsugu, looking around at the room's interior.

However, before Shiroe could reply, a female voice called out to them from their left, causing the entire group to turn their attention in that direction:

"Shiro-bouuuuuuuuuu~!"

A very well endowed, blonde-haired woman came running from a side door at the group.

"Marielle-san!" Shiroe managed to call out, before being crashed into by said woman, the force causing him to crash into the wall and make a loud sound from impact. Kanami and Sakura laughed loudly at the sight.

"Are you ok? You must be hungry." Marielle continued on as she rubbed her cheek against Shiroe's face. "Eat something…not that it has any flavor!"

"Calm down, Mari-nee…" Shiroe managed to grasp out, as Naotsugu and Akatsuki watched the sight from the sidelines. Marielle complied, lifting her up off of Shiroe's lifeless form and turning to face the rest of the group.

"Ara? What do we have here?" the woman remarked as her attention turned toward the rest of the group. Akatsuki felt herself backing slowly away from Marielle as said girl's attention turned to focus directly on her.

Her instinct was well documented, as not one second later, Marielle crashed into the assassin in the same running glomp attack that the group's enchanter had befallen a few minutes previously.

"Do you have a girlfriend now, Shiro-bou?" Marielle called out as she rubbed her cheek against Akatsuki's face. Kanami gave a start at the question, but as she was standing behind everyone, nobody noticed.

"No!" Shiroe replied quickly and decisively, picking himself up from where Marielle had sent him into the wall. However, it was apparent that the blond woman was not paying attention, as she ignored Shiroe's words and sat down quickly, Akatsuki resting like a doll (complete with lifeless eyes) on her lap.

"You're so adorable!" Marielle called out as she stroked the assassin's hair. "Want a lollipop?"

Akatsuki's only reply was to groan.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Naotsugu leaned his face in towards Shiroe.

"Where were you hiding this hot chick?" he asked. Shiroe sighed at the guardian's question.

"I haven't been hiding her anywhere." He replied. Just then, Marielle let go of Akatsuki and bounded over to where the two of them were talking.

"Who's this?" the woman asked as she pointed to Naotsugu. The guardian's response was to strike a pose and give her a thumbs up.

"Naotsugu!" he replied.

"Nice to meet you!" Marielle quickly answered, waving her hand in gesture as she did so. Shiroe quickly backed away from Naotsugu, knowing what was coming next.

There was another loud sound as Marielle threw herself onto Naotsugu as well, causing an impact in the wall from the force of the collision.

"Naotsugu, huh?" she exclaimed as she did so. Naotsugu felt the air being forced out of him from the impact and was unable to quickly respond.

"Wha-, what-" was the only thing the guardian managed to say as Marielle rubbed her face against his own. Not two seconds later, the guardian found himself back on his feet, and Marielle was now patting his armor from all around.

"You're pretty buff!" the woman remarked as she continued patting Naotsugu's armor. "You play sports?"

"No, um…I mean, this is armor…"

Shiroe chuckled a bit while watching the two act out what was pretty much a comedy love scene.

"What's her problem?" said guardian called out to Shiroe as he fell victim to yet another one of Marielle's glomps. "She's scaring me!"

"Marie, stop it."

Shiroe turned around to look at the new voice, finding himself looking at yet another familiar face to him.

"Another one!" Naotsugu called out as Marielle slid off him shoulders, allowing the guardian to rise to his feet. "Hot girls everywhere!"

"Henrietta-san!" Shiroe called out, acknowledging the new arrival.

"Oh dear," Henrietta remarked, pushing her glasses back up into place. "I apologize for calling you here, Shiroe-sama." She turned her attention to the enchanter before continuing with the next remark:

"Given what is happening here, I'd like to exchange information…" However, Henrietta got no further, as she suddenly stopped as her gaze shifted onto both Akatsuki and Sakura. Dropping her notes, she starting walking toward the two in a very strange way, causing the two in question to sweatdrop and start backing away slowly.

"K-kawaii~!" was the only thing Henrietta remarked, her eyes sparkling. Alarm bells went off in both Akatsuki's and Sakura's heads and the two started walking backwards even faster, as Henrietta started following close behind. At the same time, Marielle took this as a cue and began to chase Naotsugu around as well, causing a scene of circles and pandemonium within the room, with Kanami and Shiroe in the middle looking at it all.

At the doorway, a small group of guild members stood, watching the scene as well.

"There they go again…" one of them, a blue-haired kid remarked.

Shiroe sighed as he took in the entire situation.

"Do you want to share information?" he asked.

* * *

A few minutes later, after all the commotion had settled down, the two parties found themselves seated on two couches. On one side, Marielle sat with Henrietta standing close behind her. On the other side of the table, Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Akatsuki were sitting. As the couch was too small for any more, Kanami was standing directly behind Shiroe and Sakura was beside the window, looking out at Akihabara and apparently not interested in the discussion in progress. A young, female member of the Crescent Moon Alliance was serving tea to both group while the blue-haired boy from earlier was standing off to the side, while still paying attention to the conversation.

"Then how about the Crescent Moon Alliance members?" Shiroe asked.

"Including myself, nineteen are online." Marielle answered, taking a sip of tea. "Of those nineteen, eighteen are currently in Akihabara."

"Eighteen of nineteen…" Shiroe muttered to himself. Just then, the blue-haired boy spoke up from the side:

"I'm told that, along with Akihabara, the other four major cities on the Japanese server, Shibuya, Minami, Susukino, and Nakasu are all in the same shape." He remarked. "The inter-city transport gates are also offline. In other words, teleporting elsewhere is impossible."

"The Akihabara adventures, just like us, are all meeting with their guilds, just like we are." Henrietta added from where she was standing. "Some guilds are also looking to recruit."

"At a time like this, the more people on your side, the better." Marielle picked up.

"But even if this isn't our world," Naotsugu cut in, "we're all very familiar with Elder Tale."

"Not necessarily." Shiroe pipped up, causing everyone to look at him. "You remember the new expansion, right? The Novasphere Pioneers."

At this point, from where she was standing near the window, Sakura's ears perked up and she started listening in, while not giving any indication that she was doing so.

Naotsugu clicked his fingers as he understood what Shiroe was trying to say.

"I get it." He said. "If they've added that new expansion, then monsters, items, and quests may all be different."

Shiroe nodded at Naotsugu's remark.

"This world might not be the Elder Tale that we know." The enchanter added, shifting attention back onto himself once again. Sakura turned away from where she was listening, clenching her heart and grimacing as she did so.

There was a moment of silence as the other members present in the room took in what he had said. Fidgeting nervously, Marielle broke the silence.

"H-hey, Shiro-bou." She said, causing the enchanter to look at her. After a moment's hesitation, the Crescent Moon Alliance's guild leader continued: "I know you aren't the biggest fan of guilds."

At this point, Shiroe's head looked down, causing Akatsuki, Naotsugu, and Kanami to look at him.

"But…would you like to join ours?" Marielle continued. Henrietta looked at her.

"Marie…"

"Debauchery Tea Party is gone, right?" Marielle continued, unfazed by Henrietta's confusion. From behind Shiroe, Kanami looked deep in thought as she continued to look at the back of the enchanter's head.

"And right now…"

"I'm sorry, Mari-nee."

Shiroe's voice cut off Marielle from what she was saying, giving her a start in surprise. A small, reluctant smile was on Shiroe's face as he replied: "But I can't, yet."

* * *

After the meeting had ended, Marielle was standing by the same window Sakura was at earlier, looking at the retreating backs of the group that she was talking with just a few moments before.

"That's a great guild master." Naotsugu remarked as the group walked away from the guild building. "It's all she can do to stay in control, but she's still acting so friendly."

Back inside the guild building, the blue-haired boy spoke up:

"Wasn't the Debauchery Tea Party a legendary guild that expanded?" he half-asked, half-remarked, causing both Henrietta and Marielle to look at him.

Marielle shook her head in response to his question.

"No, no. Debauchery Tea Party wasn't a guild."

"It was a small group that never formed as a guild," Henrietta continued Marielle's explanation, "but managed to complete several large-scale battles called raids. And Shiroe was their strategist."

At the end of that statement, Henrietta adjusted her glasses, looking deep in thought.

"Now that I think of it, that girl standing behind Shiroe seemed very familiar as well, as did the one standing by the window. I know I've seen them somewhere, but where?"

* * *

Both Kanami and Sakura sneezed as Shiroe's group was once again walking through the throng of depressed adventurers on the main street.

"A cold?" Shiroe asked, looking at the two of them. The two shook their heads in a negative reply.

"How long will they just sit around there?" asked Naotsugu, looking around at the crowds of adventurers that seemingly hadn't moved in several days. "Die and you can escape. In stories like this, that's pretty common."  
Shiroe and Akatsuki both looked up at Naotsugu at that remark.

"And sometimes, if you die in the game, you die in real life." Shiroe countered, causing Naotsugu to grimace.

"When it was just a game, you'd revive at the Cathedral." Akatsuki said from where she was sitting on the fence.

"But we can't very well experiment." Sakura pointed out.

"But even if you do revive, what about your penalty?" asked Kanami, looking deep in thought. While the others went into deeper thought from the monk's words, Shiroe gave a start as two familiar young figures went by in front of him down a perpendicular street, being surrounded by a shady group of other adventurers. Noticing Shiroe's look, Akatsuki looked a bit concerned.

"What's wrong, my lord?" she asked.

Shiroe adjusted his glasses before he replied:

"Let's try it."

* * *

That night, the entire group was gathered in a certain location that Shiroe had guided them to.

"The Archive Tower Forests?" asked Naotsugu, a little confused.

"We're level ninety." Shiroe explained. "The old level cap before the expansion. Sakura here is level 100, the new level cap. Normally, low-level monsters would ignore us, but in this area, the monsters will agro on sight."

"So it's the perfect place to try it huh, Shiro-kun?" said Kanami, slamming her metal gloves together excitedly.

"Are?" just then, Naotsugu spoke up from where he was fiddling with his menu. "You can't use your mini-map in outside zones." Just then, a sound from ahead of the group startled them, causing them to look up.

"Briar Weasels…" Akatsuki remarked, her hand dropping to her sheathed dagger.

"Level 28, huh?" Sakura added, pulling her rifle out from where it was slung over her back.

Naotsugu drew his sword as he stepped to the front.

"These guys are nothing!" the guardian said, pulling up his skills menu. However, as he tried to select a skill, the menu continued to expand as the monsters got closer and closer.

"Huh?" Naotsugu remarked in surprised as the monsters quickly closed the distance.

"Naotsugu?" asked Shiroe.

"It's hard to enter commands while monsters are running at you!" Naotsugu replied, panic edging into his voice.

Shiroe adjusted his glasses.

"Get into formation, as discussed." The enchanter said. The other complied, Naotsugu taking the vanguard, followed closely by Kanami. Akatsuki shifted out to the side, while Sakura was in the very back, behind Shiroe.

At this point, the weasels had gotten into attack range, and were freely attacking Naotsugu, who was struggling to deal with his menu. Kanami, right behind him, was in the same predicament, as all she could do was dodge while fiddling with her own menu. To the right, Akatsuki broke off into a ruined building, engaging several weasels, while in the back, Sakura was having major problems with other weasels that had attacked from the side and gotten within her minimum range.

Watching the hp bars of the entire party, Shiroe thought to himself:

' _It doesn't hurt as much as I expected…but unlike when you play the game, trying to fight monsters in the front, while keeping an eye on your party and overall situation…"_

Akatsuki jumped down from the ruined building, landing right beside Naotsugu.

"This won't be easy." The guardian remarked. Just then, a gasp caused the two of them to look up, just in time to see Shiroe being easily manhandled and thrown away by a monster plant.

' _In order to survive in this world, we need to hurry and learn its rules and how to fight. But how?'_

Just then, Shiroe's attention was distracted as a shot rang out. The plant staggered back, hit, and quickly exploded into a bunch of coins and shiny fragments. Looking behind him, Shiroe saw Sakura in a kneeling firing pose, her rifle leaking a bit of gunpowder smoke.

"Sakura…chan? How did you do that?" Shiroe asked. Sakura herself didn't even look sure, looking down at her weapon in surprise.

"I don't know…I just saw my strategist being thrown apart and I just…acted. My body moved on its own." The gunner replied to the enchanter's question.

"Eh?"

Shiroe adjusted his glasses once more as he heard the gunner's explanation.

' _So that's it.'_

"Naotsugu! Kanami-san! Akatsuki-san!" he called out to the other members, who stopped what they were doing temporarily to listen. "Don't use your commands! Try to use your body to feel the motions!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Naotsugu replied, a little in shock.

"Just do it!"

"I don't get it, but fine!" the guardian shouted back, reading his shield. To his right, Kanami had begun swinging punches in a random pattern and order, with quite spectacular results. To his left, Akatsuki quickly dispatched another monster plant easily with a single strike.

Readying his shield, Naotsugu swung it forward.

"Shield Swing!"

The guardian's shield glowed green before making contact and instantly killing the three weasels that were charging at him. The weasels exploded into coins as Naotsugu looked at the results of his action.

"My strategist, this is…" Sakura remarked. Shiroe adjusted his glasses once more as he saw the battle coming to a close, Kanami easily annihilating the rest of the monsters remaining, laughing as she did so (a little disturbingly, Shiroe thought to himself).

 _Elder Tale._

 _An MMORPG with over twenty million worldwide players._

 _Without warning, an estimated thirty thousand Japanese players alone, and several hundred thousand worldwide, were trapped in a world just like the game._

 _Later, they would come to call this day…_

 _Dai Saigai (The Apocalypse)._

* * *

 **That Night**

* * *

The sound of a young girl's crying echoed out from the speaker.

"Serara!" Marielle called out. "What's wrong? Say something!"

Outside in a dark alleyway, hiding behind a barrel, a young girl clutching a staff was sitting down as she replied:

"Marielle-san…I…"

"Found her! Over here!"

Just then, shadows approached the alleyway's entrance, causing the girl to clutch her staff harder and run away in panic, the figures who had spotted her quickly giving chase.

"Serara!" Marielle's panicked voiced called out from the now-broken call.

* * *

Unknown to everyone there, the entire situation was being watched closely from the shadows by a cat-like figure, who dropped his hands to his weapons' hilts as he continued watching.

* * *

 **And this chapter is finally done, and with it the first episode as well. That was longer that I was expecting it to be. I'm not happy with how long I took between chapters though, which is something I hope to work on sooner rather than later.**

 **However, I hope you enjoyed reading and please R &R if you have the chance!**

 **See you in the next chapter: Roka no Sogu-sen I (The Roka Encounter Battle Part I)**


	5. Roka no Sōgū-sen

**I'm back again with the next chapter! As always, thanks everyone who has continued to read this far, and please enjoy!**

 **Also, while I said in the last chapter that this would be part I, I decided against the idea, as if I did so, Chapter 5 would be less than a thousand words. Also, I wanted to test how long it would take me to write a longer-than normal chapter (for me, at least) and how much I would be affected by procrastination and laziness. ^^**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: Still nothing. Although hyped for Digimon Tri's full release this month.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Roka no Sōgū-sen (The Battle of Roka)**

* * *

The next day, the usual hub-dub that had taken the city was interrupted by a bright flash of light from Akihabara's cathedral. The flash was so attention-grabbing that everyone in the vicinity stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the cathedral. A few minutes after the flash, the doors to the cathedral opened and an adventurer walked out, instantly being met at the bottom of the steps by what was obviously his party mates.

There was only one reason why an adventurer could be walking out of a cathedral, and it quickly spread amongst the other adventurers that were in the area:

" _You can die and revive in this world."_

Naturally, the news caused a huge uproar in the city.

Up on a ruined building watching the entire scene, a group of five was slightly hidden, the one at the front of the group adjusting his glasses at the revelation.

* * *

Later that day, that same group of five was in the forest once again, honing their fighting skills against low level monsters. In short, they were simply getting used to the new feeling of having your body fight by itself instead of by pre-set commands.

"Uwahhhhh!"

Naotsugu dove out of the way of one of the giant plant's spit blasts, crashing onto the ground heavily as he did so.

"Astral Bind!"

At Shiroe's command, ropes of light burst out of the ground and attached themselves to the monster, holding it in place. Kanami and Akatsuki immediately moved in to take advantage, the monk and the assassin striking the last blow at the same time, causing the plant to explode in a shower of coins.

"And we're done." announced Naotsugu after picking himself off the ground. He lowered his shield as the others did the same with their respective weapons.

"Let's call it quits for today." Shiroe announced. The others in the group nodded in agreement at the enchanter's remark. As they turned around and began making their way back to the city, Shiroe thought to himself:

' _Our bodies seem to know the basic combat movements. Even if we don't use commands, as long as we intend to fight and can see the enemy in front of us, we can use skills and magic in a manner similar to voice input…but there's a difference between "using" and "mastering." We'll definitely need some practice.'_

Continuing to walk back toward the main part of Akihabara, Akatsuki spoke up from where she was trailing the rest of the group:

"My lord."

The rest of the group turned around to face her, with Shiroe sweatdropping a little bit.

"Akatsuki-san, would you stop calling me that?" he asked. "Just call me Shiroe."

"Then I hope you'll treat me with the same familiarity, calling me Akatsuki." The assassin countered, looking Shiroe in the eye with a dead serious look on her face. Shiroe took a step back at the lack of hesitation in Akatsuki's voice.

Naotsugu used the opportunity to sidle over behind Shiroe.

"You two sure are enjoying the height of youth!" he announced loudly, causing Kanami to laugh and Shiroe to turn around swiftly in response.

"What're you talking about?" the enchanter countered.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Naotsugu began walking once again, whistling in a not-so-subtle way as he did so. Shiroe sighed before following him, the rest of the group hurrying to catch up.

A few minutes later, Akatsuki spoke up once again:

"My lord."

Shiroe turned around to face her in response.

"I'll go ahead, to reconnoiter on our way home." Akatsuki announced, continuing to walk past where Shiroe had stopped.

"Eh? Why?" Shiroe asked.

"Practice." Akatsuki answered simply.

"Practice?"

"One of the assassin's skills is dark vision." Akatsuki explained. "And I also have Sneak and Silent Move as well. This forest is the perfect place to put them to use and practice."

"I see." Shiroe responded, noting the logic in Akatsuki's argument. "Ok, we'll meet by the south gate. We'll stay illuminated using Magic Light as we go. You can use that to find us."

Akatsuki nodded at Shiroe's command.

"Understood." She said, jumping and disappearing in a flash of light. Naotsugu looked at the location in which the girl had disappeared.

"Eh. Then Akatsuki's subclass is tracker?" he asked.

"I couldn't even hear the leaves rustle." Kanami added from behind him.

"I remember being able to do that too." Sakura added. "She's much better than me at activating it."

"She is good." Shiroe confirmed. He leaned his staff forward in a leading position and commanded: "Magic Light."

At his command, the tip of the staff began shining, and the group continued their trek through the forest after it did so.

"An assassin and a tracker, eh?" Naotsugu remarked as they walked on. "No wonder she calls herself a ninja."

"She's a hardcore roleplayer." Shiroe confirmed.

"Speaking of which," Sakura spoke up from the group's rear, "how long have we been here, in this world?"

Shiroe didn't respond, but his face hardened at the question. Thinking back, he remembered a conversation he had had with the members of the Crescent Moon Alliance.

* * *

" _Security in town is getting really bad." Marielle remarked from where she stood._

" _Yeah." Shiroe replied._

" _The rush to buy guild halls has calmed," Henrietta put in from where she was brushing Akatsuki's hair (Shiroe swore he saw hearts flying out of her as she did so), "and I suppose the balance of power in the city has been more or less established."_

" _Adventurers in the larger guild weird their influence freely," Shoryu added from where he was standing, "and somehow the smaller guilds have become even smaller."_

" _They act like anyone not in their own guild is their enemy." put in another member of the guild, this boy with pointy ears and what looked like cat-type marks across his face._

" _But there's no fighting in towns, right?" Naotsugu asked._

" _I'm told there's a lot of low-level fighting and harassment that doesn't quite count as combat." The boy replied._

" _In the past few days, PKs have rapidly increased." Put in another member of the guild, a tall, blue-haired boy. Naotsugu's face twisted in anger as he heard the response._

" _They attack players, rather than monsters, and then steal items and money." Henrietta continued. "It's the worst thing you can do."_

" _Outside of town, you can't use your mini-map, and you can't contact the Game Masters." Shoryu added. Sakura's made a complicated face at the boy's remark._

" _And surprise attacks are far more effective." the pointed-eared boy finished. "It's much less risky now. The pros and cons have reverse positions; that must be why it's more common now."_

 _Akatsuki made a face as the finished explanation._

" _How cowardly." The girl remarked._

" _If Akihabara keeps getting worse…" Shoryu implied. A silence took the room after his unfinished sentence. However, that was interrupted as Shiroe asked:_

" _Is something wrong?"_

" _Eh?" Marielle was taken aback by the sudden question. "Ah, it's nothing. What a problem, isn't it Naotsugu?" she leapt onto the guardian and grabbed his arm, with Naotsugu frantically waving it all around in an attempt to get her off. Soon afterwards, the room descended into its usual chaos. However, in the midst of it all, Shiroe was still wearing a serious expression._

* * *

"What's wrong, Shiro?" Naotsugu asked, noticing Shiroe had fallen silent while the group had continued walking back towards the city.

"Ah, nothing." Shiroe replied, looking a little startled at the question. Naotsugu looked at him for another moment before turning his attention to the front once again.

"I don't think you should need to feel so bound by duty all the time." He remarked, causing Shiroe to look at him. "I mean, there's no need to hold back!"

"What do you mean?" Shiroe asked, a little confused. Naotsugu didn't respond, but instead turned his attention onto a certain female assassin who was visible on top of an archway.

"Oi, Chibi-ko!" Naotsugu called out.

"Don't call me a shrimp!" Akatsuki called back, a little annoyed. She jumped down from the archway as Naotsugu continued walking towards her.

"See any gobs?" he asked.

"I like the one with the skull on his head." Akatsuki replied. "It's weird and a little cute."

As Shiroe continued to watch the two of them talk, Kanami walked up next to the enchanter.

"You don't need to think that much about what Naotsugu-kun said." The monk said, causing Shiroe to look at her with a confused look on his face. Kanami gave her trademark grin at him as she continued: "You're smart enough, so why don't you figure it out yourself?" With that last remark, she strolled past the still-confused enchanter and walked over to where Naotsugu and Akatsuki were now in a heated argument.

"Just don't think too much about it, my strategist." came Sakura's voice from behind Shiroe. "If there's one thing that's your weakness, it's that sometimes are too smart for your own good."

Shiroe looked deep in thought at the statement.

* * *

A little while later, the group was starting to reach the outskirts of Akihabara's main zone, with a status screen indicating that the group was now passing a building called the "Roka Hospital." They continued walking for a little bit, until suddenly Shiroe and Naotsugu both suddenly jumped backwards, drawing their weapons while they did so.

"Shiro-kun?" asked Kanami, confused. "What's wrong?"

"I sense something." Naotsugu replied in Shiroe's place, the two of them staring into the darkness up ahead. "Is it human? Then it must be…"

To answer his question, a small light appeared in front of them, followed almost immediately with ropes of light coming out of the ground and wrapping around Naotsugu's legs. However, not even a second after that happened, another wave of light passed over the guardian and dispelled the ropes, shattering them to pieces.

Naotsugu turned to Shiroe and flashed a thumbs up at the enchanter.

"Thanks!" he called out. "You're always so quick with support." Turning back to face what was in front of them, he finished his statement: "Well, what do we do now, strategist?"

Shiroe's glasses twinkled as he responded:

"Naotsugu, Kanami, straight line formation." Shiroe commanded, with the monk and guardian taking up positions one behind the other as he said.

"My strategist?" asked Sakura from behind Shiroe, noting that her name wasn't called.

"Fall back to maximum status-reading distance." Shiroe answered, and the girl nodded, running back quite a distance from the rest of the group. Continuing, Shiroe remarked: "Our enemies are PKers. I have visual contact on eight."

"I can't see them very well." Naotsugu remarked from his position at the very front.

"I'll determine their location." Shiroe answered, holding out his staff in a pointing motion. "Mind Bolt!"

At his command, a blue-whitish bolt of lightning fired out of the end of his staff, shooting straight past the PKer group, lighting all of them up for the time in which it took the bolt to pass.

Naotsugu's face hardened as he readied his stance. "Enemy sighted."

Behind him, Kanami did the same thing, reading a fighting pose and looking like she was ready to run in. At the same time Shiroe, who noticed that Sakura was readying herself in the back as well, made a subtle hand motion, which the gunner noticed and immediately put away her weapon.

"These guys have guts, turning to PKing other players." Naotsugu said as the PKers walking slowly closer. Scoffing, the guardian continued with his insult: "They miss their mommies so much that they turned into animals?"

Behind him, even Kanami's normally carefree face hardened as she stared down the opponents ahead of them.

Shiroe adjusted his glasses as he took into account the enemy's composition.

 _Three dressed as fighters. Four looks like thieves and the last one like a healer._

The PKers stopped a small distance in front of the group and the front-most one, obviously their leader, stepped up and started talking:

"Leave everything you're carrying and we won't kill you."

"If they're talking like that, they've read too much manga." Shiroe mumbled to himself. _And more importantly, they're human._ Adjusting his glasses, the enchanter replied:

"What do we do?

"Crush them!" Naotsugu exclaimed angrily. "These guys attack people for fun! Obviously, if someone else kills them they can't complain!"

In response to the guardian's heated and provocative outburst, the PKing group started reading their weapons and walking closer. Seeing them approach, Shiroe announced:

"I'm willing to give them the money…" Adjusting his glasses, he finished: "that is, if they can beat us."

Both Kanami and Naotsugu let out half-dead-serious, half-evil grins on their faces at Shiroe's reply.

"Well said, Shiro!" Naotsugu called.

"You little…" The PKing group drew their weapons, dropping into a ready pose as they did so.

"First target, the one in front, on the right." Shiroe began dishing out order, ignoring the PKers' reactions. "Naotsugu, draw the others' attentions too. Kanami, watch Naotsugu's back and make sure he's not being overwhelmed."

"Roger that (Shiro-kun!)" both Kanami and Naotsugu acknowledged, running straight at the PKers. The PKers responded in kind, four of them going after Naotsugu while the other four engaged Kanami.

"I got the fighter!" the PKer's leader shouted out as he launched a rapid series of blows on Naotsugu's shield. "You take the mage!"

"Roger!" the female thief he was talking to acknowledged the command, disengaged, and ran straight at Shiroe. Sakura went for her weapon once again, but Shiroe waved her off.

"Astral Bind!"

At his command, ropes of light burst out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the female's legs, pinning her back and preventing any sort of engagement on the enchanter. Seeing the scene, the PKer's leader scoffed.

"I'll take the mage. You get the warrior!" he commanded, disengaging from Naotsugu and running after Shiroe.

"I-I got it!" the slightly-panicked female thief responded, running back towards Naotsugu after the bind wore off.

' _That was a good call."_ Shiroe thought to himself while surveying the situation. _'However, Naotsugu is a guardian.'_

Almost like in response to Shiroe's thoughts, Naotsugu shrugged off another attack by a hammer-wielding PKer and yelled:

"Anchor Howl!"

A large force blasted from Naotsugu, quickly engulfing all of the PKers in the area. Feeling the intense pressure of the skill, the PKer's leader made an angry noise.

"Fine, if you want to die. We'll take the warrior first!"

"You won't break through my armor!" Naotsugu countered, bracing himself for the impending attack.

With that, all seven attacking PKers jumped right at Naotsugu. However, even with seeing this immediate threat (which would certain overpower Naotsugu, despite him being a guardian), Shiroe made no movement to help.

Instead, he adjusted his glasses, an evil smile appearing on his face.

"Kanami-san, have fun."

"That's what I've been waiting for, Shiro-kun!"

Immediately after being freed from the restraints of three opponents at once, the monk took advantage of the fact that directly in front of her were the exposed backs of two of the thieves. Unleashing a series of very rapid attacks and skills, Shiroe just watched both status screens as the thieves' HP bars quickly were reduced to zero, both PKers exploding into a bunch of coins, items, and bright shards from Kanami's attack wave.

Seeing the sight, the other four attackers hesitated in what they were doing, disbelief in each of their faces.

"Wha-there's no way a monk can drop two of us that fast!" the PKer's leader exclaimed. Shiroe adjusted his glasses once again at his remark.

' _He has a point if he was talking about an ordinary monk. Unfortunately, Kanami is anything but ordinary after all.'_ the enchanter thought to himself, his last thought causing him to shudder at the recollection of a certain valentine's day of the past.

At his position, Naotsugu gave an approving nod at the situation.

"Good job, Kanami!" he shouted, lunging at the hammer-wielding warrior, who barely managed to block the guardian's attack. Seeing this, the four remaining PKers picked themselves up and engaged Naotsugu from all sides, while Kanami jumped in immediately afterwards to help the embattled guardians.

' _Kanami's attack was good, but we're still in a bad situation.'_ Shiroe thought to himself from where he was surveying the battle. _'Naotsugu's HP won't last another thirty seconds…'_ As he thought that last remark, Shiroe saw Naotsugu's hp bar drop very close to five thousand remaining.

Raising his staff, Shiroe called out another command:

"Electrical Fuzz!"

Immediately as he said so, four bolts of light erupted from the end of his staff, turning into small balls of light that hit each of the remaining four attacker's dead on. Seeing that the attack did almost no damage to her HP, the female thief looked back at Shiroe and called out:

"He's an enchanter?"  
"What's that spell?" the hammer-wielding warrior added. "It didn't hurt at all!"

The PKer's leader scoffed at Shiroe's attack.

"What were you trying to accomplish with that pitifully weak spell?" he taunted, as the hammer-wielding warrior raised his weapon to strike another blow at Naotsugu.

Narrowing his eyes as he saw, Shiroe raised his staff again, calling out another command:

"Thorn Bind Hostage!"

At his call, five thorny ropes of light, resembling vines, burst out of the ground and wrapped around the hammer-wielding warrior, preventing him from moving or attacking.

"What is this?!" the warrior exclaimed, trying to free himself from the spell. Seeing his advantage, Naotsugu swung his sword, cutting one of the vines wrapped around his opponent's arm. There was a second delay after Naotsugu cut the vine before an explosion of light engulfed the warrior, causing him to yell out in pain. At the sight, the female thief and the leader both took a step back in surprise, while Kanami took advantage of the fact she only had one opponent and easily dropped his HP to zero, causing her opponent to explode in the same fashion as the other two did.

Seeing that their numerical advantage had dropped to dead even at three apiece, the PKer's leader and the female thief rapidly turned their heads back and forth between Naotsugu and Kanami, while the still-wrapped warrior dropped to one knee from Thorn Bind Hostage's damaging explosion. Naotsugu didn't hesitate, striking another one of the thorns and causing another explosion that engulfed his opponent.

"When all five thorns explode, you'll lose half your HP." Naotsugu said, taking a step back while preparing his next attack.

"Calm down!" the PKer's leader called out, a hint of panic in his voice. "We need to heal…healer!" He turned his attention to the last member of the PKer's group, who had not moved from his position since the start of the battle.

"Your back is exposed!" the female thief called out, striking Naotsugu once from her position before being onset by Kanami. The PKer's leader laughed as he saw the advantage tilting toward his group again.

"We'll win because we have a healer and you don't!" he taunted. "Have fun crying in the cathed-"

Before he finished his sentence, Naotsugu cut the remaining three vines with his next attack, the force of the blow and the vines' explosion sending the warrior flying back into the PKer's leader before exploding; the remaining thorns having taken his remaining HP down to zero.

The PKers' leader's face turned into shock at the sight he had just witnessed. Turning his attention back to the healer, he yelled:

"What are you doing, healer?!"

However, instead of answering, the healer swayed on his feet for a few seconds before falling to his knees. From his position, Shiroe adjusted his glasses once again before explaining:

"I've put your healer to sleep. Of course, they've been asleep the entire time."

"I'll take you out first, after all!" the female thief yelled in response, disengaging from Kanami and leaping towards Shiroe.

"Wait, not yet!" the leader yelled out a warning, but it was too late.

"Anchor Howl hasn't worn off yet!" Naotsugu exclaimed, the guardian appearing right behind the female thief mid-jump.

"Cra-" the rest of the thief's curse was cut off as Naotsugu attacked, a loud scream echoing out in response. Seeing that he was the last one left, the PKer's leader took a step back.

"Fine, we'll go full force." Turning his head towards the surrounding forest, he called out: "Sorcerer! Summoner! We'll use everything we have! Blast them to ash!"

What met him though caused any remaining smugness to drop off his face entirely. While both of the players that he had called did appear from the forest, they were being dragged by the collar by Akatsuki, who had been busy behind the scenes as the fight was going on.

Shiroe adjusted his glasses once more as he saw that Akatsuki had understood his earlier callout. As he hadn't seen any mages in the initial group of PKers, despite the fact that Naotsugu had been targeted by a bind-type movement-restriction spell. Because of that, he had specifically chosen his words correctly, stating that he had 'visual contact' on eight players instead of just seeing eight players. Akatsuki, still observing from nearby, had understood his words and moved quickly to dispatched any would-be ambushers that were remaining within the forest.

Dropping both of the would-be ambushers that she was carrying (both of whom exploded due to Akatsuki dropping both of their HP bars to zero), the assassin readied herself while staring angrily at the last standing member of the PKer group.

"Insulting my lord's magic isn't wise." The assassin said. "You laughed at those small electric bursts, but those bright lights prevented you from seeing in the dark forest. You never realized your healer was asleep." Her look becoming more and more piercing as she spoke, Akatsuki finished: "Your teamwork is full of openings. You were too focused on the battle to even watch your own HP, or keep an eye on the rest of the party's status. Taking out your ambushers was easy."

"Shut up!" the leader spoke up immediately after Akatsuki finished her speech. "Defeating us won't do any good! We'll just revive in the Cathedral…"

"Want to try it?" Akatsuki countered, dropping her hand to the hilt of her blade. The PKer's leader hesitated for a moment, before dropping his sword onto the ground and bowing in deep apology.

"I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Please forgive me! Please!"

The action caused Akatsuki to take her hand off her blade, although the disgust was evident on her face from the leader's actions. However, while his face was hidden towards the ground, a grin appeared on the PKer's face as he drew a hidden kunai-type weapon.

"You actually thought I would say that, you-!" he yelled out, lunging at Shiroe. He never finished his sentence or his attack however, as a loud shot rang out. The PKer made a motion as if he was hit by some projectile before exploding, his HP having been reduced to zero from the attack. Looking back, Shiroe and the others saw Sakura, still at the extreme edge of combat as Shiroe had commanded her to be, kneeling in a firing pose with her weapon drawn, a bit of smoke rising from the barrel.

"I am truly sorry, my strategist, but I couldn't let him attack you." The gunner said simply in reply to Shiroe's unasked question.

* * *

A little while later, the five members of the group found themselves resting atop a nearby ruined building, looking over a small group of campfires in a nearby clearing.

"Security really is really getting bad." Akatsuki remarked from her position, leaning against a stone pillar.

"It's not like PKing is good for much profit." Shiroe spoke.

"I can understand people being freaked out." Naotsugu put in from a few feet away. "But there are other things they can do with their time."

"Like what?" Akatsuki asked.

"Of course, boob-"

BANG.

Naotsugu never got to finish his reply, as his face was met by a combination of Akatsuki's knee and Sakura's rifle stock, the combined forced sending him sprawling head-first into a nearby pillar.

"My lord, may I knee this pervert in the face?" Akatsuki asked calmly after she had walked back to her position.

"Ask before you do it!" Naotsugu yelled back, holding his nose painfully. "And while you're at it, let me finish my sentence!"

"You were going to say something perverted." Akatsuki countered. Naotsugu gave a sheepish grin as he replied:

"I was, but…"

"My strategist, I have a question." Sakura's voice caused Shiroe to look up from where he was in deep thought. Nodding a go-ahead to the gunner, the girl continued: "I understand that I wasn't needed in the previous battle, but why did you have me stand as far away as possible?"

"Information control." Shiroe replied simply. Seeing the gunner's confused face, Shiroe continued: "From what we've seen so far, even after reviving at the Cathedral, adventurers still keep their memories of what happened before their deaths. With your status as the only known active supertester, as well as your unique class and already maxed level, if it were to get out into general knowledge, there would be no shortage of people coming after you when ether for the information that you have or for you for your character."

"I see. You were looking out for me." The girl replied, understanding dawning on her face, although there was also a shade of regret at not being able to do anything to help. She gave a small bow of thanks to Shiroe before turning her attention back to staring at the campfires down below. At the same time, Shiroe returned to what he was doing before the question.

"Other things to do?" the enchanter muttered to himself. "You're probably right…there's nothing to do. No goal to live for. Taste aside, we have food. By defeating lower-level monsters, you can make money. With that money, you can stay at an inn. Fighting isn't allowed in towns, so you don't have to fear for your life there. And even if you do die, you come back to life."

"So you can survive in this world without doing anything?" Naotsugu asked after Shiroe had finished talking.

"But can you really call that living?" Shiroe asked immediately after. "Or is it just not being dead?"

"So they've resorted to PKing because there's nothing else to do?" Akatsuki asked from her position.

"They need something beyond staying alive to occupy their minds." Shiroe replied. At the logic that he provided, even Kanami's generally joyful face was deep in thought.

"And they're getting it by hurting others?" the monk asked. "Unbelievable."

"Yeah, it's pretty pathetic." Shiroe agreed. "But…"

 _I'm not doing anything either._

"My lord?"

Shiroe looked up with a start. Unbeknownst to him, he had made a worrisome face while thinking his last thought, causing Akatsuki to call out to him in concern. Seeing the girl seated right in front of him and looking right at him, Shiroe was forced to turn his head to the side before replying:

"Oh, but I don't really think things are getting worse. It just seems that way because everyone still thinks of this as the same Elder Tale world they knew."

Standing up, the enchanter walked to the edge of the building and looked up at the clear night sky.

"If it isn't that world, then security was an illusion from the start." He announced.

"My lord…" Akatsuki remarked softly from behind Shiroe. Just then, the enchanter raised his hand to his ear, answering a call that he had just received. Listening closely, Shiroe's eyes narrowed at what he was hearing.

* * *

"You're going to Susukino?"

Naotsugu's response to Marielle's declaration was half of shock and half of disbelief.

"On the day of the Apocalypse, one of our members was going to Susukino." Henrietta explained.

"A girl called Serara…" Marielle added.

"You're going to find her?" Shiroe asked.

"The transport gates aren't working, right?" Naotsugu added.

"Using fairy rings would be the only other way there." Akatsuki finished.

"Yeah, but…"

"Indeed." Henrietta cut of Naotsugu's response. "Since we can't look up any online timetables in a walkthrough, using them is dangerous because we can't be sure where we'll end up."

As Henrietta explained, Kanami sidled over to Sakura and in a whispered tone of voice, asked:

"Do you happen to know of the timetable from your supertesting knowledge?"

Sakura shook her head in sadness.

"Unfortunately, that wasn't my area of expertise, so I don't know much about it." She said. Kanami sidled back to her original position after this answer, a little down.

"There's also the return spell, Call of Home, right?" Naotsugu meanwhile was continuing the conversation. "You can return to the last of the five Great Cities you visited…wait." He caught himself, realizing something at the end of his statement.

Henrietta nodded, confirming what he had realized.

"The last one Serara had visited was Susukino." She confirmed.

"Yeah…" Naotsugu gave a dejected sigh.

"The only methods left are walking or by horse." Shiroe added after he went over the other options in his head. "Why send help only now?"

"Eh?" Marielle looked a little shaken up at the question. "Well…"

"W-we've been planning to send a rescue team for a while…" Henrietta tried to come to Marielle's aid, unconvincingly.

"Marie-nee." Shiroe's response was cold and straight to the point. Both girls flinched and looked away at his statement.

"D-don't look at me like that!" Marielle said. Pushing her fingers together, she added: "You look really mean…If you do that, girls won't like you!"

However, her words had the opposite effect, as bad waves were now just emanating off of the slightly annoyed enchanter. Seeing this, Marielle stopped, defeated. Sighing, she continued her explanation:

"Things in Susukino are worse than they are here." She said. "Some nasty players attacked Serara. She was lucky to be saved by a nice player. As of right now, they're protecting her."

"And so, we were going to take our highest-level players to Susukino." Henrietta continued Marielle's statement.

"And I wanted to ask if you'd take care of the rest of the guild while we're away." Marielle finished the statement, posing the question at the end.

"Please." Henrietta asked, her head bowed. Marielle clapped her hands together as a gesture of begging as well.

"Please…I beg you."

Shiroe lowered his head as he thought about what was just said.

' _Twenty-one days is probably the fastest you can make it to Susukino. Over a month, round trip. The Crescent Moon Alliance's highest-level members? In Elder Tale, the maximum party size is six…if they had a good healer…no, their journey is going to fail. What's the best option, then?'_

Clenching his hands together tightly, he thought of the only thing that would work:

' _We…we should go. But I have no right to involve myself in someone else's guild. And Marielle and the others wouldn't want that, anyways. But…even so, I."_

Just then, a hand laid itself on Shiroe's back. Looking backwards, Shiroe saw that Kanami had moved up and was flashing her trademark grin at him.

"Just say it, Shiro-kun."

"Your turn to speak, my strategist." Sakura added from where she was standing.

Listening to the both of them, Shiroe closed his eyes for a moment, before confirming his decision. Standing up, he placed his fist to his chest as he spoke:

"We will go."

"Eh?" Both Henrietta and Marielle obviously were not expecting this response, as both of their faces showed total surprise.

"The best option is for us to go." Shiroe confirmed.

* * *

Later, at the Ueno Thieves' Realm, Marielle, Henrietta, and the other remaining members of the Crescent Moon Alliance were seeing off Shiroe's party.

"Shiroe-sama, Naotsugu-sama, Akatsuki-chan." Henrietta started.

"Please save Serara." Marielle finished.

"Leave it to us, and to my lord." Akatsuki said, no hesitation showing in her voice at all. "A ninja does nto know the word 'failure'."

With that, Shiroe and the rest of the group headed out, with Marielle and the others waving to them from behind. A little after they were out of sight, Shiroe and the others each used their whistles to call their horses, getting on and immediately riding off towards the North.

"Where do you suppose these horses come from, anyways?" Naotsugu asked as they set off.

* * *

A few hours later, after the sun had fully risen and was high in the sky, the group took a break from the ride so far.

"It's nice that the movement is automatic," Naotsugu commented as he stretched his back and other joints which had locked up from sitting for too long, "but it still hurts my butt…"

"Does it?" ask Akatsuki, showing no signs of discomfort. Noticing Shiroe was reading something on a piece of parchment, Akatsuki moved over to take a look.

"That's a really nice map." The assassin commented after confirming the parchment's contents.

Looking back at her, Shiroe looked a little surprised at her sudden appearance.

"My subclass is scribe." The enchanter explained. Turning back to look at the map, he continued: "I made a copy of the maps at the archives."

"Now that's my bus guide!" Kanami joyfully commented from where she was doing a little exercise in place. Shiroe mostly ignored her, although his face noticeably became more stressed.

"I see…" Akatsuki said, looking over Shiroe's shoulder at the map's content. "Nice job, my lord."

"Well, where are we?" Naotsugu asked, as he had come over and was now looking at the map of Shiroe's other shoulder. Shiroe pointed at a spot on the map not far from Akihabara at all.

"Seriously?" Naotsugu asked, disbelief in his voice. "I can't tell at all."

"Oh well…" Shiroe replied, folding up the map and putting it away. "We'll make better time in the afternoon."

"Understood." Both Akatsuki and Naotsugu replied.

A few minutes later, the group was now biting into a small snack and refreshing themselves.

"I just wish they could do something about the food…" Naotsugu remarked, the disdain showing in his face. Akatsuki didn't say anything, but she was showing the same signs as Naotsugu was. Kanami, meanwhile, was chugging down a whole bottle of water while Sakura had eaten nothing at all ("I hate tasteless food").

Looking up, Shiroe remembered the final part of the conversation he had with Marielle and Henrietta before leaving.

' _We'll go.'_

Sighing, Shiroe sank into thought once again.

"If someone you know is crying, you help." Naotsugu's voice came unexpectedly from behind Shiroe, snapping the enchanter out of his funk. "There's nothing unusual about that."

"Yes." Akatsuki confirmed.

"Even if we have nothing to do, that's no reason for us to be pathetic, too." Sakura added from her position.

"You're right." Shiroe confirmed, turning his attention to the sky.

 _This is my…It's our answer. What we can do._

"Or is that too cool for us?" Naotsugu added. Shiroe turned around to look at him.

"No, but…" Smiling, Shiroe finished his sentence in his head:

 _But that's how cool it was…our old place, the Debauchery Tea Party._

Kanami gave another joyful laugh from where she was standing.

"It's another adventure! This is going to be fun!" she exclaimed, the joy in her voice very evident.

"As long as you're not in charge." Shiroe countered, smirking a little. Kanami made a pouty face at him.

"Shiro-kun~!"

The rest of the group laughed as they watched the scene.

"Well then, might as well get going." Naotsugu said. Akatsuki nodded and placed her whistle to her mouth.

"Wait." Shiroe suddenly remarked, causing the assassin to look up. In front of her, Naotsugu, Shiroe, and Sakura had all pulled out and were now holding whistles of the wooden variety shaped like a bird's head.

"What is that, my lord?" Akatsuki asked. The three's response to her question was simply to raise the whistle to their lips and blow.

Hearing a loud screech in the sky as a response, Akatsuki looked up. The sight that met her eyes was something she would have never expected.

Gryphons. Three of them no less.

"Those are gryphons!" Akatsuki exclaimed as the birds flew in for a landing.

"Well, yeah." Shiroe answered.

"You didn't think we were going to get to the far north on horses, did you?" asked Naotsugu, grinning as he did so.

Off to the side, Kanami was once again pouting.

"That's not fair, Shiro-kun! This account doesn't have that item!"

Shiroe grinned sheepishly in response at the monk, only serving to further her pouty face.

"But these monsters…" Akatsuki commented as the birds finally landed, one of them immediately chomping down on Naotsugu's head ("Hey! Let go of me!"). Realizing something, the shock was evident in the assassin's face as she continued: "Wait…w-we're riding them?!"

"We are, Akatsuki-san." Shiroe replied. Akatsuki's face immediately turned unhappy at the enchanter's response.

"It's Akatsuki." The assassin replied, emphasizing the lack of honorifics as she did so.

"A-Akatsuki…you'll ride behind me." Shiroe said, making sure to get the name form correct this time. "Okay?"

"All right." Akatsuki replied, moving forward toward the now-seated Shiroe. "However…I've heard of summon flutes like those." Her face becoming more serious, the assassin continued: "That they're only given to players who've won the Hades Breath raid on the Fields of Death."

Shiroe and Naotsugu both flashed each other grins, while Kanami and Sakura did the same (Kanami, incidentally, was riding on Sakura's gryphon).

"Yeah, a long time ago…" Shiroe confirmed in a soft voice.

"It's a great trick to surprise people with!" Naotsugu added, turning his gryphon around to face the north.

"Hop on, Akatsuki." Shiroe said, holding his hand out towards the assassin. Akatsuki moved her hand towards Shiroe's before stopping suddenly and pulling it back.

Confused, Shiroe held his hand out further. Her face now bright red, Akatsuki finally allowed herself to be pulled up behind Shiroe on the Gryphon, seated sideways. Kanami and Sakura watched the entire exchange, a strange look on both of their faces.

"Seated ok?" Shiroe asked.

"Yes, my lord, no problem…" Akatsuki answered, holding onto Shiroe's back.

"Okay, hand on tight." Shiroe told her, turning his gryphon around to face the same direction as the other two. "Wait, don't grab my stomach!"

"I'll go first!" Naotsugu shouted, grabbing his reins and sending his gryphon into the air. Sakura and Kanami followed a couple seconds later (a certain monk screaming "Yahoo!" as they did so).

"Ready, Akatsuki?" Shiroe asked once again as he positioned himself. "Then, we'll get going too."

At his command, the gryphon rose up off the ground, flying after the other two while Akatsuki held on tightly to Shiroe.

"It's a great view." Shiroe commented after they had gained a bit of altitude. At his comment, Akatsuki slowly opened her eyes, looking down.

What she saw shot her eyes wide open.

"My lord…this is amazing!" she commented as she looked at the vastness of the land down below. "It's like we're floating in the sky!"

"Isn't this great?" Naotsugu yelled from his gryphon. Akatsuki nodded in response.

"It's amazing…this is amazing! The sky is so blue and clear!"

Smiling at her reaction, Shiroe turned his attention back onto the journey that lay in front of them.

* * *

 **Well, almost two weeks. Counting the week and a half of laziness and procrastinating, that wasn't as bad as I thought. I certainly don't plan on writing something this long in one chapter again though ^^**

 **As always, please R &R, enjoy, and I'll see you in the next chapter, Parumu no Fukaki Basho I (Palm's Deep End/The Depths of Palm Part I)**


	6. Parumu no Fukaki Basho

**So it's been almost a month since I last updated. A very simple explanation can be that Atelier Sophie was released and…yeah, I might or might not have lost track of time while playing. _ RIP**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Log Horizon.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Parumu no Fukaki Basho (The Depths of Palm)**

* * *

The sight of the foreboding mountain appearing in front of the group provided a somewhat-welcome sigh of relief as they emerged from a rocky path.

"Oh!" Naotsugu exclaimed as they reached the base of the mountain; more specifically a giant arch-door that was built into the side.

"When Elder Tale was still a game, we came here a lot but…" Shiroe started, staring at the same sight as the rest of the group was.

"Yes, it looks quite different in person rather than in-game, my lord." Akatsuki continued Shiroe's remark.

"So THIS is what the Depths of Palm looked like." Kanami remarked, leaning on Sakura's head and taking an overly exaggerated thoughtful pose. "It's been so long since I've been on this server I'd forgotten what it looked like game-wise."

"How could you forget?" Sakura answered, shrugging off the monk. "You dragged us through here to see a sight on your own whim before." Kanami didn't respond, but instead let out a loud laugh, causing the gunner to sweatdrop.

Shiroe sighed at the sight of the two of them and made a motion with his staff before walking through the door, the others following him close behind.

* * *

The only sound echoing through the dark hallways was that of Naotsugu's armor clinking together as the group walked through the depths, led by the illumination of Shiroe's staff. Up above, Akatsuki was jumping from pillar to pillar, fading in and out of sight as she did so.

"Reporting..." the assassin remarked as she came to a stop on top of one of the pillars near Shiroe. "No enemies in sight."

"Alright, let's go on ahead Shiro." Naotsugu remarked as he heard her remarks.

"Right." Shiroe nodded in agreement as he folded up the map he was reading and put it back into his bag. Akatsuki jumped down from the pillar she was on top of and took the lead position of the group, with the others following close behind.

"It's been three days since we left Akiba." Sakura remarked from the rear of the group. "Thinking about it, we're making excellent progress towards Susukino."

"Well, we've also got access to gryphons, which most normal players don't exactly have…" Shiroe pointed out, causing the gunner to nod in agreement. "At the same time though, gryphons do have usage requirements as well, so considering that we can only use them for four hours a day, we have come pretty far since leaving Akihabara."

"Although we do have a hiccup with having to go underground to avoid the wyverns up near the mountaintops." Naotsugu remarked. "Still, the alternative would be to take horses, and we wouldn't even be halfway to this location if we did so."

"Still," Sakura remarked on one more thing: "while I understand why we went underground, to avoid the dangers of walking up above, I still don't like choosing a route through what is essentially a complex maze of tunnels through the mountain."

"At least the monsters in here aren't as high level. I was hoping for some good fights and action along the way." Kanami complained from her position. Shiroe sweat-dropped at Kanami being Kanami.

"Once we're through here," Shiroe started, turning his attention back toward in front of him, "we'll be on the north side of the mountains. All we have to do then is fly over the channel and we'll be in Susukino."

"Still," Naotsugu remarked as he looked around at the labyrinth that was the Depths of Palm, "this is way more impressive than it looked on a monitor." He took another step forward and was immediately forced to jump back in surprise as the ground he had stepped on nearly cracked apart.  
"And it's so ancient, it's falling apart." Shiroe noted, looking at the now-cracked floor. Naotsugu made a complicated face.

"It wasn't this way in the game…" the guardian remarked, staring at the cracked spot on the walkway.

All of a sudden, Shiroe felt an intense, murderous presence all around the group, causing him to turn and look behind him.

"My lord!" Akatsuki shouted, having felt the presence as well (as did Kanami and Sakura). All around them within the darkness, Shiroe was able to make out a large number of red eyes just staring at the group from all around them.

"The rat-men, huh…" Shiroe remarked after noticing the monsters.

"They're low level monsters, but they can spread some pretty nasty debuffs, including plague." Naotsugu remarked, keeping his eyes on the monsters above the group.

"…they aren't attacking; they're just standing there." Akatsuki noticed after a few seconds of tensing up.

"They instinctively know the difference between our levels and their own, so we should be fine." Sakura remarked, rising back into a normal standing pose again. "Even monsters know the difference between suicide and actually attacking a manageable target."

"But when they're cornered, they're dangerous." Shiroe added, motioning to the rest of the group to continue on. The group did so, walking through the tunnel at the end of the pathway and leaving the room full of rat-men behind.

"If we chase them anywhere narrow, or somewhere without an escape, they'll probably attack." Shiroe continued, keeping a wary eye of the large number of rat-men monsters that were above the next doorway. "For clarification purposes, think of it as Kanami when she leads us right into a large raid without any preparations whatsoever."

"Hey, Shiro-kun!" Kanami shouted, her lips pursing into a pout. Naotsugu gave out a loud laugh and Sakura gave a small chuckle at Shiroe's wisecrack, while Akatsuki looked confused.

"Ah, don't worry about it." Shiroe remarked to Akatsuki as he was being held by the collar and shaken by Kanami. It took a few seconds, but eventually Kanami calmed down and released the enchanter, and the group turned their attention back toward the large group of rat-men perched above the next doorway in front of them.

"You know what we did there, taking all our attention away from these mobs was incredibly stupid, right?" Sakura remarked.

"Yeah…" Shiroe replied.

"So shall we break through?" Naotsugu asked, reading his shield.

"I'd like to avoid wasting time fighting if possible." Shiroe answered. "And none of us want the plague debuff either." Turning to look at the guardian, Shiroe continued: "Let's take another route."

"Yeah…" Naotsugu remarked, seeing the logic in Shiroe's points.

With that, the group turned around and moved in another direction.

* * *

A little while later, the group was taking a break on top of what was basically a mini-dam after finishing their detour around the large mob group.

"This area seems safe." Naotsugu remarked.

"Yeah." Shiroe agreed. As soon as he said that, Akatsuki appeared out of nowhere, having just come back from her scouting assignment.

"My lord, I just scouted the floor ahead." The assassin reported.

"Thanks." Shiroe responded, turning away from the map he was reading to face the assassin. "Could you tell me what you saw? I want to cross-reference with my map." He asked as he turned back to look at his map. All of a sudden, he felt an enormous pressure staring at his back, causing the enchanter to look back towards Akatsuki, who was now staring at him with her cheeks puffed out, obviously annoyed.

"Don't use keigo *****." She said, shaking her finger at Shiroe.

"I-I'm sorry." Shiroe replied to the assassin's request. Turning to face towards Naotsugu, Shiroe started:

"Naotsugu, why don't you go ahead and…eat…" Halfway through the sentence, Shiroe was forced to stop as he saw that Naotsugu had already attempted to begin eating, feebly nibbling on a sandwich with tears streaming out of his eyes. All of a sudden, the sandwich flew away as the guardian started screaming into the air.

"This nasty food is the one thing I just can't get used to!" he exclaimed while he did so. "Even when you cook it, it turns into this purple sludge in a heartbeat!"

"It could be worse." Sakura remarked from where she was looking down below. "At least the ingredients themselves have taste."

"And at least there's food, period." Kanami added.

"True…" Naotsugu was forced to concede quietly.

"Even if you have the chef subclass, it's apparently no better…" Akatsuki added, shuddering as she remembered the attempt the group had to eat some curry before leaving Akihabara.

"It does make me long for fast food and convenience store bentos…" Shiroe admitted, smiling slightly at Naotsugu's attempt to completely coat the sandwich with salt. All of a sudden, there was a ringing sound that broke the temporary silence.

"A call, my lord?" Akatsuki inquired from where she was sitting.

"Oh, it's Marie-nee." Shiroe remarked as he answered the call and stood up.

" _Hey Shirou-bou! Where are you?"_ Marielle's voice rang out from the speaker.

* * *

"Ehhhh?! The Depths of Palm? You've really gone that far in three days?"

Marielle's sudden outburst caused Henrietta to look at her from where she was standing.

"How?!" Henrietta shouted into Marielle's mike. "And is my Akatsuki-chan alright?!"

On the other side of the call, Akatsuki felt a chill go down her spine at that exact moment.

"You told me your plan, but you're still scaring me a little." Marielle said after Henrietta's outburst.

"That aside…" Shiroe attempted to change the subject, "How's it looking?"

"Ah, right." Marielle remembered. "We're in touch with Serara via telepathy. She says she's hiding with that nice guy I mentioned, and that she's okay for now."

"I see." Shiroe said. "That's good to hear. I guess some good people are still left in Susukino."

"Yeah." Marielle agreed.

"Someone's helping her, huh?" Shiroe wondered outloud to himself. "I wonder what kind of person they are."

* * *

"Eh? My maid level is 44?"

At the exact same moment that Shiroe was wondering his thought, a young druid girl was looking a new announcement on her status menu from a hidden player house in Susukino. This girl was, indeed, the same Serara that Shiroe and his group were heading North to save.

"Yesterday, it was at level 42…" Serara muttered to herself. She sighed. "Why did I pick such a minor, useless subclass?" With that, she immediately resumed her maid work, while continuing on her rant at the same time: "I should have chosen crafting even if it wasn't going to rise for a long time…like weaver, or artisan. I'm so bored, I just keep leveling up."

As she was hanging up the laundry (somehow finishing a bunch of actions in the time it took her to recite that rant), a thought came to the young druid girl.

"But maybe I'm not a maid…I'm a housewife?!"

Ideally, logic would have taken over and brought the girl back to her senses, but she was a little too far gone at this point, blushing at her supposed 'realization.'

"No way, no way!" she repeated to herself, while at the same time grabbing a broom and beginning to sweep the floor frantically. "Maybe I'm a maiden, waiting for my kitty-husband to come home!"

"Serara-san. I'm home."

The sound of a different voice coming from behind Serara instantly snapped the girl out of her delusions and caused her to look towards the door. Seeing who it was, Serara straightened up and smiled before replying:

"Welcome home, Nyanta-san."

"Thank you, Serara-san." The catlike adventurer replied, walking in with a bag of ingredients.

"How was town?" asked Serara.

"Same as always." Nyanta answered simply, setting the bag he was carrying down on the table. His face hardened before he continued: "It wasn't good. It wasn't bad."

Hearing this, Serara clinched her hands together in frustration.

"Now, now…don't think so hard about it." Nyanta said, having noticed the young girl's action. "If you let it bother you, you'll get depressed."

Serara gave a slightly relieved smile at Nyanta's comment.

"Yeah."

"This house is so clean." Nyanta changed the subject rapidly, perhaps to get the girl's mind off of the current subject. "I'm sure you'll be a great wife someday."

"Th-that isn't true…really." The girl replied.

"How are those people who are coming for you?" Nyanta asked.

"Oh, yeah." Serara perked her head up at the question. "Marielle, my guild master contacted me. She said they'll probably arrive tomorrow, before noon."

"So soon?" Nyanta remarked. "That pretty impressive. I wonder what these people who are coming for you are like. Well, as long as Kanami-san doesn't come for you herself, I suppose it won't be chaotic at all. But that would be impossible, wouldn't it?" Nyanta laughed at his own joke as Serara cocked her head sideways in confusion.

* * *

" _Shiro-bou, thanks…seriously. Be careful."_

" _Yes, talk to you later."_

With that, Shiroe hung up the call, returning his attention towards the rest of the group.

"You didn't tell her we're using gryphons?" Naotsugu asked.

"Guess not." Shiroe replied. The group continued forward once again, somewhat rested from their stop and 'meal.'

* * *

"By the way, how do you suppose Shiroe and the others plan to cross the channel?" Henrietta asked Marielle after the latter had hung up on the call.

"I don't know…" Marielle admitted in response. "He said something about figuring it out once he got there."

"He probably has some special plan." Henrietta responded confidently. Closing her eyes, she continued: "You can tell he was the Tea Party's strategist. But why would someone like that refuse to join a guild?"

"I'm sure he has his reasons." Marielle replied while looking out the window at the setting sun.

"Um, excuse me."

A third voice in the room caused both Marielle and Henrietta to look towards the doorway, where a younger member of the guild was standing.

"What is it, Liliana?" asked Marielle.

"Everyone is here." The girl replied to Marielle's question. At that response, Marielle walked out of the room, followed closely by Henrietta and Lilliana.

"And? Did everyone come?" Henrietta continued to ask questions as they walked down the hallway.

"About sixty percent." replied another Crescent Moon member, this one male and towering over the others height-wise. "No reply from ten percent. Thirty percent refused."

Marielle didn't respond and continued to walk down the hallways towards the conference room.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the same time as Marielle was going to the meeting, there was another action going on in the headquarters of D.D.D, easily the largest of the top guilds currently situation in Akihabara. Inside, two members were reading reports that were delivered to them about recent events.

"Woodstock W, from Grandeur; Ichimonjinosuke Akaneya, from Radio Market; It seems that they and several masters of the smaller guilds have gathered in the Crescent Moon Alliance's hall." Takayama Misa reported, finishing reading off the report that she had on her clipboard at that moment.

"Is that so?" replied the second member in the room, this one male and currently sitting down on the only chair (which resembled a throne in some ways).

"Yes." Misa confirmed, flipping to the next page of the report she was reading. "And as for Shiroe, formerly of the Debauchery Tea Party…"

At the remark of a certain enchanter's name, the man's eye twitched, although it went by unnoticed.

"…He seems to be on his way to Susukino." Misa finished reading, looking up once she had finished. The man looked up from the report he was reading for a moment, before looking back down at it.

"Susukino?" he muttered to himself, adjusting his glasses as he did so and causing a twinkle to flash off of them.

"Is something wrong?" Misa asked.

"No, nothing." Crusty, leader of the entire D.D.D. guild replied, giving no indication of whatever it was that had just perked his interest.

* * *

Back in the Depths of Palm, Naotsugu was currently trying to keep his balance, as he had almost just walked off the pathway due to a large section crumbling and falling into the water far below.

"Hey, this bridge was in the game, right?" the guardian asked once he had successfully kept his balance.

"Yes." Shiroe simply answered.

"Was it always on the verge of collapse?" Naotsugu followed up. Shiroe was about to reply, but then suddenly head the sound of more stones crumbling off the bridge.

"Naotsugu! Akatsuki! Stop!" the enchanter called out to the two people who were leading the group. At the same time as he did so, one of the main pillars of the bridge completely cracked, starting to fall apart.

"Come on…seriously?!" Naotsugu exclaimed as he noticed.

"We'll have to find another route." Shiroe shouted back, trying to grasp the situation as he did so. "Let's head back; well go back one at a time-"

However, he was never able to finish that sentence as at that exact moment, the ground cracked beneath Akatsuki.

"Akatsuki!" Shiroe shouted out, rushing forward. However, as he did so, the ground completely gave way underneath him, plunging him down into the water below. Akatsuki ran up to the hole where the enchanter was a couple seconds ago, reaching her hand down in a futile attempt to save him.

"My lord!" The assassin shouted. "My lord! My lord!"

"Calm down, don't be rash!" Naotsugu exclaimed, grabbing the assassin and preventing her from jumping after Shiroe.

At that moment though, a flash of white and blue shot right past Naotsugu's eyes. Looking up instantly at the movement, Naotsugu was just in time to see Kanami jump off the collapsed bridge after shaking off Sakura's grip, falling into the water that Shiroe himself had fallen in.

"Oi! Am I the only sane one here?!" Sakura shouted behind her.

* * *

Water everywhere. Unsurprisingly, that was the only thing that Shiroe was able to see in his field of vision, which was quickly fading.

" _No…If I die here, I'll end up back in Akihabara…"_ Shiroe thought to himself. As his view faded, he barely made out a figure swimming toward him in the water, reaching out toward him before his view was gone.

* * *

" _The best part of adventuring is experiencing new things, right?"_

With a start, Shiroe instantly sat up. He was sitting on a ledge with a group of very familiar people standing in front of him; at the very front being an incredibly familiar girl wearing a straw hat.

"New things?" the enchanter asked.

"Yep, it's exciting and wonderful!" the lead girl replied to his question.

"Almost as much as panties."

"Naotsugu-senpai, don't say that stuff in front of the ladies."

Seeing all this, Shiroe was unable to reply or even form up any words as he viewed a scene that he had seen before.

"Shut up! You're just saying that because all the girls like you!"

"Well, that's true, but…"

"Ugh…I'll get you one of these days, Souji."

"Please don't cry…"

Just then, the straw hat wearing girl let out a laugh from where she had moved to the edge of the cliff.

"Just look at this gorgeous view." She exclaimed, making a motion towards the setting sunset in front of all of them. "Totally worth the effort!" She turned around to face the others, before calling out to one specifically:

"Right, Shiro-kun?"

"Eh?" the enchanter was taken aback by the sudden comment directed at him. The girl frowned before walking up to where he was sitting and staring at him.

"What are you spacing out for?" she asked. "Lost in thought again…Shiro-kun?"

"Shiro-senpai?"

"What's wrong, Shiro?"

* * *

"My lord!"

"My strategist!"

Shiroe suddenly opened his eyes, finding himself staring into the concerned eyes of both Akatsuki and Sakura, whose faces were literally inches from his own. Behind them, Naotsugu was polishing his sword and Kanami was breathing heavily while sitting against a rock, looking exhausted while she did so.

"Oh, are you awake?" Naotsugu exclaimed, finally noticing that Shiroe had opened his eyes.

"Are you all right, my lord?" Akatsuki asked, obviously concerned deeply.

"W…where am I?" Shiroe managed to ask.

"You need to thank Kanami." Naotsugu said. "After you fell, she literally jumped in right after you and dragged you out of the water all by herself. Nearly killed herself doing so too."

"I see…" Shiroe said, looking over to where Kanami was now looking at him, still catching her breath as she did so. "Thanks, Kanami-san."

Kanami's only response was to look up and flash her usual Kanami-type grin back at Shiroe.

"Um, my lord…" Akatsuki's voice caused Shiroe to turn and look at the assassin, who was sitting down on the ground with a bashful look on her face. "T-thank you…"

"Eh? For what?" asked Shiroe. Akatsuki turned her face more towards the side before responding:

"You tried to save me…so…"

At this, Naotsugu grinned and picked himself up off the ground, having finished polishing his sword.

"Okay, let's get this adventure back on the road, shall we?" he asked.

"Yeah." Shiroe nodded in response. "It's weird though…"

"Eh? What's that?" asked Naotsugu.

"I fell into the water from that height, but I'm barely hurt and I'm not cold." Shiroe answered while putting his glasses back on.

"It's because your body is level ninety." Sakura's voice came over from the side, causing Shiroe and Naotsugu to look at her. "Have you ever heard the saying 'a high enough level makes you invincible?'"

Both Shiroe and Naotsugu shook their heads at her question.

"Well, it applies to certain things within the game, such as fall mechanics." Sakura continued to explain. "Honestly speaking, it wasn't the largest fall in the world, and coupled with the fact that you fell into water and your level, it's not that surprising."

"That's our resident information specialist for you!" Kanami exclaimed (Shiroe and the others jumped in surprise, nobody had seen her get up from where she was catching her breath), slapping Sakura hard on the back as she did so.

"Technically I'm not supposed to speak about stuff like this without permission, but the entire situation has changed, so I suppose this won't hurt if it's just a little bit." Sakura said, rubbing her shoulder in response to Kanami's hit. Akatsuki, meanwhile, was looking back and forth between the other members of the group, confusion evident on her face.

"Anyhow, shall we keep moving?" Shiroe suggested. The others nodded and the group picked themselves up and continued on.

* * *

"After all this walking, I'm hardly tired at all." Naotsugu commented after a little while of the group walking in silence. "So anyhow, where are we right now?"

"We ended up taking the long way, but we're nearly out." Shiroe responded as he looked at his map.

"You really are good at cartography, my lord." Akatsuki sudden said from where she was walking behind Shiroe.

"Ah, my subclass is scribe, after all." Shiroe responded. "Back in the other world, I also did CAD work."

"Ah, come to think of it, that's true." Naotsugu remarked, turning around from his leading position.

"CAD?" asked Akatsuki, confused. "What's CAD?"

"Designs you make on a computer." Shiroe explained. "I do it at my university. I'm an engineering student."

"So my lord is a college student." Akatsuki repeated.

"A graduate student." Shiroe corrected, gently. "I'm actually about to graduate…or I was, at least."

"Oh." Akatsuki said. "Then you're basically the same age as I am."

"Eh?"

Silence.

"EH?!"

"SERIOUSLY?!"

Akatsuki's eyes narrowed in slight annoyance at the reaction of the two guys in front of her field of vision.

"Is it that surprising?" The assassin asked.

"You're kidding, right?!" Naotsugu exclaimed. "I mean, you're totally a kid-"

BANG

The sound of Naotsugu being knee-driven into a nearby wall filled the air as a big annoyed mark appeared on Akatsuki's head.

"My lord, may I kick this stupid Naotsugu?" she asked as her victim in question slid down the pillar to the ground.

"She's a college student…?" Shiroe was repeating to himself in shock, not hearing what Akatsuki had just said.

"I told you, ask BEFORE you do that!" Naotsugu shouted at Akatsuki as he picked himself up off the ground. Akatsuki turned away from him in a huff.

"It's your fault for being rude and perverted." The assassin said.

"Perverted? You mean like brea-"

BANG

Once again, Naotsugu found himself flying away due to a kick from a certain, slightly annoyed assassin.

"My lord, may I take this pervert and…"

"Again? At least let me finish my sentence!" Naotsugu complained. Meanwhile, a slight distance away from all of this, a certain gunner was patting her chest with a sad look on her face.

"Oh-ho! What do we have here?" Kanami's voice came from behind Sakura, causing the gunner to jump in surprise.

"I-I don't…it doesn't look like-" Sakura spat out, trying to form words. Kanami laughed at the poor girl's attempts.

"Don't worry about it. You're the youngest one here by far. The more you worry about it, the more grey hairs you'll get from stress anyhow." The monk replied, and Sakura instantly shut up and turned her blushing face downwards, hiding it from view.

Meanwhile, back with the other three, Shiroe was currently reasoning with Akatsuki.

"Akatsuki, Naotsugu going to cry." The enchanter remarked. Akatsuki paused from where she was walking before turning around and dropping her hand to her weapon.

"My lord, did you also think I was a child?" the assassin confrontingly asked. Seeing a violent red aura around Akatsuki, Shiroe struggled to find words:

"N-no, I wouldn't say 'child'…" the enchanter managed to say. _'How do I answer this?'_

All of a sudden, realization came over Shiroe's face as he realized what he said.

' _A kid, huh.'_

A memory of spotting two younger kids that he knew surrounded by shady figures back in Akihabara came to mind.

' _It looks like they joined some guild. I wonder if they're okay. Maybe once I'm back in Akihabara, I'll find them and-'_

"My lord? What are you thinking about?"

Akatsuki's voice snapped Shiroe out of his thoughts and back to reality, and he found that the group had continued walking on even while he had been absorbed within his own thoughts.

"Ah, nothing really." The enchanter replied.

"That's not true." Kanami said, jumping into position right in front of Shiroe. "Whenever you're thinking too hard about something, your brow furrows." Kanami pointed to a position between her eyebrows as she continued: "Right here; you look like an old grandpa while doing so."

Behind Shiroe, Naotsugu let out a laugh at Kanami's description. Shiroe turned around and shot the guardian a piercing look.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked.

"Well, you heard her!" The guardian managed to spit out between laughs.

"Naotsugu!"

"Oh."

In between all of this teasing going on, Sakura's simple noise of surprise caught everyone's attention, turning to look at the girl. Sakura was standing where she was, he head fully cocked back as she looked directly upwards.

"I'm sorry, my strategist. I forgot that was added." The gunner remarked. All of a sudden, as soon as she remarked that, the room began to fill with a thick mist, causing everyone in the group to drop into a combat stance.

"Where did this come from?" Akatsuki asked, looking all around for the source.

"Lag?" Naotsugu put in.

"No, we switched zones." Shiroe noticed.

"Above us!"

At Kanami's call, three heads instantly shot up to look above them (Sakura was already looking in that direction and Kanami had just noticed).

"What is that thing?!" Naotsugu exclaimed after noticing. "It's blocking the stairs to the exit! Was that in the game?"

"Long story short, we always thought there should have been some sort of end-boss to the Depths of Palm." Sakura explained. "So that was added in Novasphere to compliment this area." She half-grinned apologetically at the others. "Sorry, I should have remembered that was there before we entered here, but my mind was on other items at that time."

"No worries." Shiroe replied. Turning back to look at the large monster above them, he continued: "A subspecies of rat-man? Doesn't seem to have a specific name."

"As I said, my strategist," Sakura explained once again as she took out her rifle. "just added this patch."

"Which means it's one of the Novasphere monsters?!" Naotsugu exclaimed. There was a moment of pure silence as everyone else in the group shot a look at Naotsugu ("Are you serious?") before turning back to look at the direct threat.

"Alright!" Kanami exclaimed, slamming her fist weapons together in pure glee. "Finally some action!"

"It's huge, but it's level 68." Shiroe pointed out, looking at the boss's status bar. "By the looks of it, it's mostly status debuffs."

"Is it the reason the dungeon's falling apart?" asked Akatsuki.

"Probably." Shiroe answered. "It's a little risky, but…"

The enchanter adjusted his glasses in an all-to-familiar way before finishing his sentence:  
"Let's eliminate it."

"Now you're talking!" Kanami exclaimed excitedly at Shiroe's words.

"Alright, let's make this quick, strategist." Naotsugu exclaimed, running off to the left. Slamming his shield to the ground, the guardian shouted: "Over here, big boy!"

The giant rat turned as Naotsugu began generating hate, focusing its attention solely on the guardian.

"Akatsuki, Kanami, start attacking from the directions that the monster is not looking and take pressure off of Naotsugu." Shiroe began commanding. Both Akatsuki and Kanami nodded, moving into position to attack.

"Stealth Blade!"

"Tiger Echo Fist!"

Both attacks simultaneously hit the boss, staggering it back a large amount and towards Naotsugu. Taking advantage of the fact that the monster could not attack him, the guardian switched to an offensive stance and attacked.

"Cross Slash!"

From the side, Shiroe watched the battle unfold in front of him. Combined with Sakura's regular attacks as well, the boss's HP bar was dropping rapidly from the force of attacks by adventurers many levels over it, dropping below half within ten seconds of the fight beginning.

' _No matter how much you get used to it, fighting in real life is different.'_ Shiroe thought to himself.

As if he had read Shiroe's mind, Naotsugu blocked the boss's attack at him while saying at the same time:

"You can't apprehend size, breath, or stink through a monitor!"

"Achilles Heel!"

Hearing Sakura's voice off to the side, Shiroe saw a flash of light, almost faster than the eye could see (symbolizing the path of the shot) fly straight into the boss's right ankle. Looking up at the status bar, Shiroe noticed a symbol had appeared indicating that the boss was immobilized.

"Here I go!" Shiroe called out to the others, taking advantage of the opportunity.

"Thorn Bind Hostage!"

At his command, blue-light thorns burst out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the boss.

"Nice one, Shiro!" Naotsugu called out, slashing one of the thorns. At the same time, Akatsuki cut another thorn and the boss screamed as the damage from the thorns took effect.

"Well done, Shiro-kun!" Kanami called out as she cut a third thorn, at the same time that Sakura shot a fourth. From the combined assault, Shiroe saw that the boss's HP was now below ten percent.

"This boss's defense is pretty high, but our levels are tearing right through it." Akatsuki remarked as she too noticed the boss's HP.

"One left… get it, shrimp!" Naotsugu called out. At the same time, the boss shot one of its arms out and pinned the guardian to the wall.

"Don't call me a shrimp!" Akatsuki yelled back as she jumped above the boss, reading to attack.

"I'll ensure you don't miss!" Shiroe called out to the assassin. Reading his staff, he shouted another command:

"Mind Shock!"

A purple orb shot out from his staff and landed at the boss's feet, exploding once it reached there.

' _First you add a confusion debuff that lowers dodge and agility.'_ Shiroe thought to himself. As the boss reared back from the spell, it grabbed Naotsugu and threw the guardian into the air, said guardian screaming all the way.

' _Then amplify the attack power of your allies' weapons.'_ Shiroe continued reciting to himself, apparently either having not notice Naotsugu's flight or just plain out ignoring it.

"Keen Edge!"

At his command, Akatsuki's blade began glowing with a bright white light. Noticing it, Akatsuki called out:

"Thank you, my lord!" Falling towards the ground, Akatsuki cut the last remaining thorn ("Assassinate!"), the boss exploded into a mass of glowing particles as its HP bar reached zero. Naotsugu flashed Shiroe a thumbs-up as the latter sighed in relief.

Suddenly, a ray of bright light shined in on the group, the glare of it causing Shiroe to shield his eyes for a moment before he was able to look in that direction. In front of the group, there was a large amount of light that was shining in from a section of the cave that had opened up after the boss was defeated.

"Is that…?" Shiroe muttered to himself, a memory coming back to him. All of a sudden, he felt his hand grabbed and he was jerked forward, towards that light. Looking up, he saw that Kanami had grabbed him and was eagerly pulling him towards the light with a big grin on her face.

"Come on, Shiro-kun!" the monk called out as she continued to pull the hapless enchanter. Naotsugu and Akatsuki both glanced at each other and made a move to follow, but were suddenly stopped by Sakura stepping in front of them.

"Just wait a moment." The gunner said, holding her arms up to impede their progress. Looking backwards at the exit that Shiroe and Kanami, the gunner let out a regretful smile before turning her attention back to the assassin and guardian in front of her.

* * *

In front of Shiroe was a sight that was beyond breathtaking. In front of him, facing outwards from the cliff that he was standing on was the sight of a perfectly clear horizon, with the sun setting downwards and creating a sight that could take someone's breath away.

"Do you remember this place, Shiro-kun? Kanami asked, looking at Shiroe in an inquisitive way.

"Not a lot of people could forget a place that they were forcefully dragged to." Shiroe shot back. Kanami had a pouty look on her face for a second before her face went back to normal and she looked in the direction of the sunset as well.

"Do you remember what I told you here?" the monk asked. Shiroe closed his eyes and nodded sincerely as he replied:

"The best part of adventuring is experiencing new things.'" Shiroe said, repeating exactly Kanami's words on that day that resonated so strongly in his heart. Kanami smiled at him and turned her attention back towards the setting sun.

"We're the first ones here since the apocalypse, Shiro-kun." Kanami stated matter-of-factly. "We're the first adventurers in the world to see this sight."

"That's right." Shiroe replied, closing his eyes at Kanami's words. "I've never seen anything so amazing, even in Elder Tale."

"It's our first prize for victory!" Kanami said, raising her arm into the air in triumph. Turning back to Shiroe, Kanami flashed her usual Kanami-type grin.

"I expect you to show me more of these sights alright, my bus guide?" the monk said, a wide smile on her face. Shiroe gave a sigh of defeat.

"I can't ever win against you, can I?" he asked no one in particular. Kanami laughed once again in response.

* * *

In Susukano, a caravan lay in flames along with several defeated adventurers. Nearby, a bunch of ruffian-looking adventurers were busy pillaging what they could from the destroyed caravan.

"Sorry…there's no escape from Susukano!" One of them taunted the single remaining terrified caravan adventurer that was still conscious.

"How many times have you tried?" Another one added. "Get a clue already!" The two ruffians looked at each other and let out a hardy laugh that only served to terrify the caravan adventurer more. After that, one of the ruffians raised his sword and swung it down, instantly killing the terrified adventurer.

Off to another side, another group of ruffians were going through a chest full of items.

"That was a big wagon, but there isn't much inside." One of them said, pulling a set of clothes out of the chest.

"Hey, why are you standing there?" A second one called out, noticing that the third member standing there wasn't doing anything. "Pick stuff up!"

The third adventurer looked down as he replied: "I don't think I can do this…"

"Then you're headed for the cathedral."

The sound of another man's voice behind the third adventurer was met with a large force slamming him in the back, sending the adventurer sprawling into a nearby rock.

The remaining two adventurers looked in fear at the source of the blow. Standing there was a towering adventurer, utilizing clawed fist weapons with another cloaked adventurer standing off to his side.

"Demikas!" One of the adventurers cried out in fear.

"It's just a game! It's all virtual!" Demikas yelled out at the group that was present.

"They'll just come back to life." The cloaked man off to his side added. "If you're still freaking out about PKing, something's wrong with you."

The two adventurers cowered back in fear before running to another part of the caravan as Demikas gave a 'huff' after them.

"So, Londark," Demikas started, directing his next sentence at the cloaked man that was beside him. "Where are the cat and the girl?"

"I have men looking for them, but nothing yet." Londark replied. Demikas's face clenched in anger as he heard the reply.

"Why are you still fooling around?!" He bellowed at all the adventurers present, startling all of them and causing them to look at him. "Find the cat and the girl!"

"Y-yes sir!" The group yelled, breaking off from whatever they were doing and running helter-skelter back towards the city.

"This is my world." Dermikas announced after the group's retreating back. "I won't allow anything that goes against my will!" Grinning evilly, he finished his sentence, shouting it into the sky:

"Just wait, Serara!"

* * *

 ***Japanese Honorifics**

 **And it's done. If I wasn't sidetracked by games, I should have had this up a couple weeks ago. Whoops.**

 **Anyhow, now that I've calmed down from the 'feeling' that you get from a new game, I should be able to settle down and get the next chapter out a lot sooner than this one took. I do plan on splitting the next part into two (shorter) chapter though, so don't expect something like this chapter and the previous one (although I have been getting used to this style of writing a lot in one go).**

 **With all that said, please R &R, have a happy and safe holidays, and I hope to see you in the next part (hopefully before the end of the year): Dasshutsu I (Escape Part I).**


	7. Dasshutsu I

**I'm back!**

 **I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays depending on what holiday(s) you celebrate during this time) and is prepping well for the New Year.**

 **With that said, please stay safe and have a happy end of the year.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Dasshutsu I (Escape Part I)**

* * *

 _The Half-Gaia Project._

 _When Elder Tale was a game, one goal was to make the game world a one-half-scale model of Earth._

 _In this world, the land corresponding to Japan is known as the Crescent Islands of Yamato, the northernmost area of which is the Ezzo Empire._

* * *

After leaving the Depths of Palm, Shiroe and the others had finally reached just outside the gates of their destination: Susukino. As they approached, the wreckage of what seemed to be a caravan caught the group's attention, causing them to stop and look around.

"Well, this is a sight for sore eyes." Sakura remarked as she looked at the charred remains of a wagon in the middle of the road.

"Brigandia's the guild that's bossing people around in Susukino, right?" Naotsugu asked as he also was surveying the scene.

"Even when this was a game, they had a bad reputation." Akatsuki explained after Naotsugu had asked his question.

"To them, this world must be heaven." Naotsugu concluded after hearing Akatsuki's explanation. Meanwhile, off to the side, Shiroe was just wrapping up a call at the same time that Akatsuki and Naotsugu were having their conversation.  
"Yes, thank you." The enchanter said to whomever he was speaking to, before saying goodbye and hanging up his call.

"Who was that?" Naotsugu asked. Shiroe turned around to look at him before answering:

"Marie-nee will talk to Serara."

"Understood." Naotsugu replied, apparently satisfied with the short answer and giving a thumbs up.

"But, my lord…" Akatsuki interjected, causing both the enchanter and the guardian to look at her. "Why are we meeting them inside the city instead of somewhere outside? Is it unsafe outside?"

Shiroe turned back to face the walled city before answering the assassin's question:

"If we meet up outside and are wiped out in a fight, we'd revive in the Akihabara Cathedral." The enchanter explained. "However, unlike us, Serara would revive at the Susukino Cathedral."

"I understand." Akatsuki nodded after hearing Shiroe's explanation. Just after she finished, Naotsugu spoke up once again:

"Serara is on a Brigandia member's Friend List, right?" Naotsugu asked, suddenly remembering a piece of information that the group had been given prior to the current time.

"Yeah." Shiroe confirmed. "However, her current hiding spot is within a private zone, so they can't find her currently. However, the minute that she leaves that zone, they'll locate her and send pursuit."

"So she's gotta get out before they catch up." Naotsugu concluded after Shiroe's explanation. Shiroe nodded in confirmation, before turning to Akatsuki.

"Akatsuki, I'd like you to hide yourself with Sneak and Silent Move and follow us into the city, please." The enchanter said. However, contrary to what the enchanter was expecting, Akatsuki's eyes narrowed in response to Shiroe's words.

"No "please," my lord." The assassin said, referring to Shiroe's use of Keigo. Shiroe sweatdropped at Akatsuki's comment before the assassin vanished in a flash of light; no doubt to go and do what Shiroe had asked. Shiroe gave a wry smile into the air before turning around to face the two trailing members of the group, both of whom were still inspecting the destroyed caravan.

"Sakura-san, please do the same as Akatsuki, but along the outside of the city please." Shiroe asked the gunner.

"My strategist, am I ever going to get a chance to actually help out?" The girl asked inquisitively, a slightly sad tinge visible on her face.

"If it was Akihabara, then it would be easier to information control." Shiroe explained. "However, because of the distance from Susukino from there, if word got out, you'd pretty much have a target on your back for information, as it'd be close to impossible to silence any unwanted information." Seeing that the gunner's face had become even more depressed from his explanation, Shiroe gave a pitiful smile at the girl. "Don't worry, I don't plan to keep you out of everything."

This seemed to perk the girl up some, and the gunner turned to carry out what Shiroe asked. However, at the last second she turned back around to face Shiroe, her sad look completely gone and now replaced by a severely annoyed one.

"What's wrong?" Shiroe asked, sweatdropping at the girl's face.

"No "please," my strategist." The girl said, before disappearing in a flash of light in the same manner as Akatsuki did. Shiroe's sweatdrop became even more intense as Kanami let out a laugh.

"Shiro-kun, you shouldn't give preferential treatment to any of your arms specifically." The monk teased the enchanter. Shiroe adjusted his glasses and composed himself before turning to face Kanami.

"Kanami-san…" the enchanter began, causing the monk to look at him with anticipation and excitement in her eyes. "…please wait out here in the middle of the road."

"EHHHH?! SHIRO-KUN!" Kanami yelled out, clear disappointment in her voice. Naotsugu attempted to stifle his laughter as Shiroe attempted to calm Kanami down.

"Wait, I haven't finished yet, Kanami-san." Shiroe attempted to say in between the monk's disappointed complaints.

"Yeah, your skills are more for destruction and 'debauchery' rather than for extracting someone." Naotsugu pipped in, letting out a loud laugh as his words worked exactly as he intended it to: Kanami's annoyed/sad face became more pronounced as the monk grabbed Shiroe's shoulders and began shaking him in place.

"L-l-list-ten to m-eeee…" Shiroe managed to say while being shook. In response, Kanami stopped shaking him in place, although her annoyed/sad face still was staring at his own. "I do have an important thing for you to do, but Naotsugu's correct…to a point." The enchanter corrected himself at the end, trying not to cause Kanami to explode any more. Seeing that Kanami had let go of him in response and was standing, waiting for him to continue, Shiroe continued on: "If you don't mind, Kanami-san, please…"

The rest of Shiroe's sentence was spoken in a low tone/whisper to the monk, who leaned in with her ear close to Shiroe's mouth to hear what the enchanter was saying. As soon as the enchanter finished up his sentence, Kanami's eyes lit up and she bounced back a step, a wide grin on her face.

"Leave it to me, Shiro-kun!" the monk said, holding a 'thumbs-up' to Shiroe. Shiroe turned to Naotsugu and made a small 'let's go' motion, to which the guardian complied, Kanami waving the two of them off while they did so.

"So what did you tell Kanami, Shiroe?" Naotsugu asked the enchanter as the two of them walked up the road to the city's main gates.

"Just a little something to help us…for later." Shiroe replied, adjusting his glasses and causing an evil twinkle as he did so. Naotsugu looking at him for a moment before grinning and turning his attention back to Susukino.

"Then, let's get this plan in gear!" the guardian shouted, one hand in the air as the two continued walking on.

* * *

Inside the city, Demikas was currently sitting on a throne atop a mountain of treasures, furiously pouring over his status screen (currently being used to search for Serara).

"Where are you hiding, Serara?" The monk asked to nobody in particular as yet another search turned up negative for the girl's location.

How long are you going to obsess over that girl?" Londark, who was standing beside the mountain of treasure, asked.

"You've gotta keep a tight leash on your pets; let them know who's boss." Demikas answered. Londark gave an evil smirk in response to Demikas's answer before a loud ringing turned his attention in another direction. Demikas, noticing that the call was for him, answered it, to be confronted by the voice of one of the scouts he had located near the gate.

"Demikas-san!"

"Eh, what's wrong?" Demikas asked back.

"Well…" the scout replied, explaining the current situation that he was watching.

"Two guys you don't know?" Demikas asked after the scout's report was finished.

"They appear to be outsiders." The scout confirmed the monk's words. Before Demikas had time to answer, a notification sound rang out from his status screen, which was now showing that Serara had finally appeared in a trackable location. Noticing this, Demikas let out an evil laugh.

* * *

"Looks like they noticed us." Shiroe silently said to Naotsugu as the two of them continued to walk down the city's main street.

"Yeah." Naotsugu agreed, keeping an eye on the adventurers that were watching them from up above. "Anyways, talk about a nasty atmosphere…"

Shiroe grunted an affirmative response, before tucking his head down and continuing on. A short while later, the two of them arrived at a ruined building that Marielle had told them Serara would meet them at.

"This is the place, isn't it?" Naotsugu asked as the two of them stared up at it.

"Yeah." Shiroe confirmed. Opening a channel to Akatsuki for a moment, Shiroe continued with his sentence: "Keep a watch, Akatsuki."

"Roger." The assassin's voice came back before Shiroe closed the channel.

"Naotsugu, you wait here." Shiroe said as the two of them reached the entrance of the building.

"Understood." The guardian said, taking up a position in front of the entrance as Shiroe continued into the building. After walking for a few moments inside the building, Shiroe finally arrived at the room that he was supposed to meet up with Serara.

"A-ano…" Shiroe hear a young girl's voice speak up as he entered the room in question. Looking around, Shiroe noticed a young girl standing there holding a staff, a shadowy figure barely visible behind her. A quick look at her status screen confirmed to Shiroe that this, indeed, was the same Serara that he volunteered to rescue.

"I'm Serara, of the Crescent Moon Alliance." The girl continued, confirming what Shiroe had already known from her status screen. "Umm…thank you for coming!" Serara finished, bowing deeply in Shiroe's direction.

However, Shiroe's attention was currently situated on the dark figure standing behind Serara, of which only his eyes were visible, standing out from the darkness. Noticing Shiroe's stare, the figure strode forward, revealing a cat-man adventurer, who quickly smiled and held up a hand in a 'hello' gesture.

"Nya." The cat-man said as he did so. There was a moment of silence for a moment before Shiroe could reply.

"Wait…Chief, is that you?!" the visibly shocked enchanter shouted.

"Nyan." The cat-man confirmed.

This interaction had not gone unnoticed by Serara, whose eyes opened wide open while still in her bowing posture. Instantly standing back up, the girl's face shifted quickly back and forth from the two others in the room as the cat-man spoke up:

"Oh, my…if it isn't little Shiroe-chi." He greeted Shiroe as his status screen popped up, showing his name as Nyanta. "That explains how you arrived so quickly."

"U-um…" Serara timidly spoke up, turning both gazes toward her.

"Ah, well…" Shiroe replied, instantly noticing his mistake. "I'm sorry Serara-san. My name is Shiroe."

"He's a very smart kid, and a very good one as well, nya." Nyanta spoke up, adding to Shiroe's introduction. "If he's here, our plan is sure to work."

"I see you still meow all the time, Chief." Shiroe said, a smile on his face as he replied.

"What are you talking about, nya?" Nyanta answered, a smile on his face as well. "This is the correct way for cat people to talk, nya."

"D-do you know each other?" Serara asked.

"I suppose we do, nya." Nyanta answered, holding his hands up in an 'it can't be helped' posture. "Little Shiroe-chi used to check me for fleas all the time, nya."

"I did not." Shiroe instantly replied, shooting down Nyanta's story.

Meanwhile, Serara was talking to herself while the two others were busy talking to themselves.

"I can finally go back to Akihabara." The girl said, before looking back up and asking: "But what about Nyanta-san?"

However, Shiroe and Nyanta had already started walking back toward where Naotsugu was waiting, Shiroe explaining the situation to Nyanta.

"Naotsugu is with me." The enchanter said. "And one other in the city currently, a girl named Akatsuki. A level 90 assassin. She's good. We also have two others waiting outside the city for us as well."

"Then little Naotsugu-chi's here as well, nya? And a new friend as well, nya?" Nyanta answered, apparently not having heard Shiroe's final comment.

"I think it would be best if you came with us, Chief." Shiroe said, as the two of them walked down the stairs.

"That's fine, nya." Nyanta answered, causing Serara, who had been following them to stop dead on the stairs. "I have no reason to stay, nya. Perhaps it is a sign from above, telling me to go to Akihabara, nya."

"Eh? Then…" Serara spoke up, causing both of the others to look back towards her.

"Nyan." Nyanta confirmed her unasked question, smiling at the girl.

"Nyanta-san!" Serara replied, the happiness very evident on the girl's face.

Just then, a ring rang out, and Shiroe instantly answered the call.

"Akatsuki?" the enchanter asked, having seen the assassin's name on the call inventory. His face became serious as he listened to the assassin's report before asking: "Which direction?"

" _They're coming from the North."_ Akatsuki's voice came in through the call. _"On their way, they're searching the town, but they're close enough to be here in five minutes. Their leader seems to be an enormous martial artist. He's a monk, but…"_

"Eh? Like a bear carved out of wood?" Shiroe asked outloud as he continued to listen to Akatsuki's report.

"That would be Brigandia's guild master, Demikas, nya." Nyanta answered Shiroe's question. Hearing Nyanta speak that name, Serara gave a gasp before gripping her staff tightly, a terrified look on her face. Seeing this, Shiroe opened up another channel with Naotsugu.

"Naotsugu?"

"I'm here." The guardian's voice instantly replied. Listening for a moment, the guardian nodded before saying: "Roger. I'll let the other two know."

"Thanks." Shiroe concluded, hanging up after finishing the call. Turning back to face the two that were with him, Shiroe spoke up: "Let's go. We'll take the rear exit."

* * *

As Shiroe, Nyanta, and Serara made their way out of an alley, they were instantly spotted by members of Brigandia, who quickly opened a channel to report the spotting.

* * *

"Is that so?" Londark said, holding his hand up to his ear as he listened to the scout's report. "So the outsiders really were here for Serara." Turning off the call, Londark spoke quietly to himself: "The transport gate is shut down…where did they come from?"

Up on his throne, Demikas smirked.

"Interesting." The monk stated, having heard the call's contents himself.

* * *

As Shiroe and the other two walked towards the rear gate, they were surrounded on all sides except forward by grinning adventurers who were watching their every move.

"It's okay." Shiroe spoke up, trying to calm Serara. "They won't attack just yet. Fighting isn't allowed within towns, so they'll wait until we're outside to attack.

As they approached the open rear gate, Serara spoke up with another question:

"T-then how will we escape?"

"Hmmm…if they're letting us leave, then we just go." Shiroe replied. As Serara made a shocked face, Shiroe spoke to himself: "That makes things easier…"

"B-but if we leave…" Serara said, "they might attack us, right?"

"Not 'might.' They will." Shiroe corrected the girl. "Once we're outside the no-PvP zone, their plan is to surround and PK us. Their first priority will probably be your confederate, Chief Nyanta." Directing his conversation back at Serara, Shiroe continued: "That will destroy your will and put you under their control. I'm almost certain of that."

Serara gripped her staff tightly in response.

"That can't be…there are so many of them…they might kill us! You can't…"

"My, my Serara-san." Nyanta said, noticing the girl's completely terrified aura. "Just leave this to Shiroe-chi and you'll be fine." As they walked out of the gate (being followed extremely closely by the members of Brigandia), Nyanta glanced at Shiroe, who adjusted his glasses before replying.

"Don't worry Serara-san." Shiroe said, trying to allay the girl's fear. "There's a very, very excellent plan B waiting for us out here."

Nyanta let out a laugh.

"Did you get Kanami-chi as your plan B, nya?" the cat-man teased, referring to the one thing that both of them that could be referred to as a 'very excellent, but extremely chaotic' plan B. Shiroe's only reply was to evilly adjust his glasses, before the group stopped.

In front of them, Demikas and his party was waiting, exactly as Shiroe had predicted, just outside of the no-PvP zone.

"Shiroe-chi?" Nyanta asked inquisitively, before a loud, booming voice rang out from the side:

"Shiro-kun! Which one of these guys is Brigandia's Demi-glass-san?" A loud, all-to-familiar female voice rang out. Adjusting his glasses once again, Shiroe glanced at Nyanta.

The shock was completely evident on the cat-man's normally composed face.

"You can't be serious, nya."

* * *

 **Yeah, short chapter, I understand, but I just wanted to split this into two parts for (attempted) humor value. I do hope it was funny at the end, in some way, shape, or form.**

 **Also, putting Nyanta's ending "nya" at the end of every sentence is fun, but extremely tedious to make sure I don't miss any. There's bound to be occasions where I do, so please forgive me in advance. ^^**

 **With that said, please R &R, enjoy a happy end of the year, and I'll see you in the next chapter, Dasshutsu II (Escape Part II).**


	8. Dasshutsu II

**New Fanfiction pen-name, woo!**

 **It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry it took so long, and I'll offer just an explanation of what happened:**

 **Back in January, I went on vacation. During the vacation, I brought my solid state drive, which holds every single one of my fanfiction chapters/outlines/proposals/etc along with me, intending to finish a couple chapters while I was on vacation for the heck of it.**

 **Had it stolen. Much QQ from me.**

 **Otherwise, I've had finals as well, so that coupled with having to re-write several chapters and outlines had me being dead for over three months. Oh, and I've been playing a lot of Dai Gyakuten Saiban as well. Not a good combination for anti-procrastination.**

 **RIP me.**

 **Also, in other news, the amount of spelling mistakes in my previous chapter is making me cringe as I re-read it. I may have to go back and correct them all later.**

 **Anyhow, please R &R and enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Log Horizon.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Dasshutsu II (Escape Part II)**

* * *

"Which one of you is Brigandia's Demi-glass-san?"

"Shiroe-chi," Nyanta began, looking sharply at the enchanter to his right as he did so. "I suppose an explanation will have to be produced after all this is said and done, nya."

"I don't see any reason to refuse that." Shiroe replied. Nyanta nodded before turning his attention back towards the completely shocked Brigandia members standing in front of them.

"Now, now, Kanami-chi," the cat-man spoke in a loud voice, not missing a beat from Kanami's earlier statement/question. "Asking something so loudly is rude, nya. I know which one he is, nya." Pointing at the large man sitting on the cart-throne, Nyanta continued: "It's that excessively large man sitting over there, nya."

All attention turned to said man sitting on the throne, before he disappeared and reappeared instantly on the ground in front of Shiroe and Nyanta.

"It's been a long time, Serara." Demikas declared, aiming his statement at the druid girl who was looking absolutely terrified. "You didn't think you could disobey me and get away with it, did you? If you come back now, I'll forgive you. Of course, I'll send you to the Cathedral ten times first!"

"Recklessness is the way of the young, and tolerance is the beauty of adulthood. But…" Opening his eyes and looking straight at Demikas, Nyanta continued: "There is such a thing as going too far."

"Huh?" Demikas replied, obviously not comprehending what Nyanta had just said.

"You've gone too far, nya." Nyanta repeated. "Reigning in children who stray too far beyond the lines is also an adult's job." Holding his hand up with an obviously provocative 'come at me' motion, Nyanta continued: "Come on, I'll fight you one-on-one."

Demikas scoffed at the proposition.

"Ridiculous." The monk said. "Why should I fight you?!"

"Are you afraid to face me alone, nya?" Nyanta continued with his provocative tone.

"What?!" Demikas answered angrily.

"Sorry to interrupt, Mister, uh…Delicious-san." Shiroe said, intentionally mispronouncing Demikas's name once again and causing shock among the present group of players. "But it doesn't have to be you."

Demikas's eye twitched at the provocation.

"I'd prefer the one in the gray robe, to be honest." Shiroe continued. "Isn't that an artifact drop from the Fire Lizard's Cave? You seem stronger."

"Have you heard of my name, Londark of Gray Steel?" Londark replied to Shiroe's remark.

"So you have a nickname…no wonder." Shiroe remarked, adjusting his glasses as he did so. "It would be more satisfying for the both of us if the strongest fighters settled things. We'll even give you a choice."

"A choice?" Demikas asked, growing more angry at the preserved 'looking down' upon him.

"A choice." Shiroe confirmed. "Shall we have our Chief Nyanta, or _our_ monk, Kanami-san, fight you?"

"Well isn't that obvious." Demikas sneered in response. Before he continued, however, Shiroe held up his hand to stop him.

"Ah, I wasn't talking to you, sorry."

That apparently was the final straw for Demikas.

"Very well then…if you want to fight that much…" Suddenly, he disappeared, re-appearing above Nyanta. "I'll fight you!"

Demikas punched the ground where Nyanta was, the cat-man only avoiding it due to jumping at the last second.

"It's been a long time since I've gotten to devour someone, nya" Nyanta remarked as he drew both of his swords in a showy fashion.

A little further back from where Nyanta and Demikas were, Shiroe adjusted his glasses as an evil smile came to his face. However, that smile didn't last for long as the enchanter quickly realized what he had forgotten.

"Shiro-kun!" A certain monk called out, slightly annoyed at the fact she was forgotten. "Let me have some fun too!"

All of a sudden, a fireball exploded near Kanami's feet, causing the monk to jump in over-exaggerated surprise.

"Little girls should stay out of this if they don't want to get hurt." Londark remarked with heavy sarcasm in his voice. Kanami slowly turned to face him as an annoyed vein mark appeared on her forehead.

Shiroe's only reaction was to sigh.

"Shiro-kun, who is this very nice and kind gentleman?" Kanami asked in a loud voice, although it was very evident that she was just barely holding in her annoyance.

"You haven't heard of me, Londark of Grey Steel?" Londark replied before Shiroe could respond. "Although it's to be expected of those that have no skill themselves; they cannot comprehend a player that is at the top."

Another annoyed mark appeared on Kanami's forehead.

"Shiro-kun? Is it okay if I go completely ballistic now?" the monk asked in a very scary voice. Shiroe sighed before replying:

"I don't think anything I would say right now would stop you."

"What are you talking abo-" Londark started to ask before Kanami vanished from her previous position. Half-a-second later, something hard made contact with his face and sent him flying into a tree about twenty feet behind him. As the other members of the mage group looked at the source of the hit in complete surprise, many more of them started to go flying.

Kanami, in a sense, was completely going to town on the mage group, a very scary enjoyable smile on her face from what she was doing. Satisfied that Kanami had the second situation handled, Shiroe turned his attention back to Nyanta and Demikas's fight. The catman and the burly monk had not moved from their positions since Shiroe had last looked, although Nyanta was continuing off of what he was saying earlier before Kanami distracted everyone:

"I'd rather the lady didn't see anything too gory, nyan." The cat-man remarked. "If you want me to go easy, tell me quickly, nyan."

"Just keep talking." Demikas answered, holding his claws up into a fighting stance. There was a moment more of inactivity before both of them moved at once, violently clashing with each other as their weapons met. While watching the fight, Shiroe was thinking to himself:

' _Demikas is in the monk class: one of the three warrior classes, alongside guardian and samurai. Many Elder Tale techniques have both what are known as cast times and cool down times. Cast time is how long it takes a spell to have effect, once it's cast. Cooldown time is how long it takes before you can reuse a spell.'_

"Aura Saber!" Demikas yelled out as he launched a powerful kick at Nyanta, who jumped out of the way once again to dodge the attack.

' _Monk-class techniques have short cooldowns. They chain techniques, giving opponents no recovery time.'_

Nyanta aimed another attack at Demikas, but the monk dodged this ("Phantom Step!") before counter-attacking the catman with full force.

"Did you think you could defeat me with those little toy swords?" Demikas taunted as he closed the distance and re-engaged Nyanta once again.

"How rude, a rapier is a gentleman's weapon, nyan." Nyanta replied as he used his swords to push away from Demikas's attack and create some space between the two.

Serara looked on with a worried face as she saw both fighter's HP bars.

"Nyanta-san's hit points…" The druid girl said worriedly. Shiroe noted her remark before taking his attention off the fight to survey the scene around them. Kanami had turned her attention away from Londark and his monk group (after severely pummeling their HP bars) and was now attacking a large group of reinforcements that had emerged from the town's back gate, creating a surprisingly-even 1-on-about-100 fight. Taking advantage of the fact that Kanami's attention was no longer on them, Londark and the other mages/healers had picked themselves up off the ground and was now focusing all their attention on Demikas and Nyanta's fight.

"Demikas had more HP." Londark remarked as one of the healers in the group continued to heal his HP back to full. "But…"

He never got to finish the sentence as both Nyanta and Demikas immediately moved to re-engage the fight. Shiroe continued looking on and thinking to himself as he watched Nyanta land an attack on Demikas.

' _The Swashbuckler: It's one of the specialized weapon classes, and one of the few that can dual wield. What sets it apart from the other classes are the bad statuses their weapons can inflict.'_

As in if response to what Shiroe was thinking, Demikas began breathing heavily and trying to catch his breath as Nyanta readied another attack.

' _Lowered attack, lowered dodge, lowered defense. They can negate an opponent's strengths…'_

"…Or worsen their weaknesses." Londark remarked, as if he was finishing Shiroe's sentence for him.

"H-hey…" one of the mages behind him said, noticing something that everyone else had also noticed: "Doesn't it look like Demikas is losing?"

"Stop jumping around, and fight fair and square!" Demikas yelled at Nyanta from where he was trying to recover his breath/status.

"Coming from you, "fair and square" sounds like a bastardization of our fair language, nya." Nyanta replied in perfect tandem.

Behind him, Serara looked on worriedly before Shiroe's voice snapped her out of her thoughts:

"Serara-san." Shiroe said. "When I give the signal, I want you to case a healing pulse on everyone."

"Eh? Everyone?" Serara asked, confused. What she didn't see was Shiroe adjusting his glasses, causing an evil twinkle to appear in one of them.

As if it was planned, Demikas immediately turned around to yell at his allies:

"I'm done playing around! You guys, heal me! Surround the cat and kill him!"

"Step on it." Londark added on after Demikas had finished yelling.

"R-right." The healer behind him answered. The remaining fighters in the group (around nine) immediately ran towards the fight, fully intent on ganging up on Nyanta-

-except for one certain guardian who had taken up a position between him and the new assailants.

"Anchor Howl!" Naotsugu yelled out as he raised in sword into the air.

"That isn't fair!" Demikas yelled at the guardian as the new assailants were forced under heavy pressure to change their target from Nyanta onto Naotsugu.

"Healer teams, heal Demikas." Londark commanded, noting the new situation that had just emerged.

"Right!" The four healers behind him replied as they raised their staffs into the air. Seconds later, Demikas's health began recharging rapidly from the healing spells.

"It's alright." Londark continued, directing his attention onto the fighter group next. "Take out the guardian first."

"Right!" The fighters answered as they all began attacking Naotsugu simultaneously.

"No…they'll kill him!" Serara remarked in a very worried voice as she surveyed the new situation that was unfolding.

"Serara-san, please." Shiroe simply said, snapping the girl back to reality once again. Raising her staff into the air, she shouted out:

"Heartbeat Healing!"

At once, a green light surrounded both Naotsugu and Nyanta's figures, beginning to heal them slowly. However, due to Serara's low level, it was only healing a point every second or so.

' _Druid is one of the healing classes.'_ Shiroe was thinking to himself once again. _"Once they cast a healing pulse on someone, it remains in effect for a short time.'_

"Oh no!" Serara spoke out worriedly, noticing the extreme lack of healing her spell was causing. "I can't keep this up!" With tears starting to form in her eyes, she continued with the obvious truth: "My level isn't high enough."

"Don't worry about Naotsugu." Shiroe suddenly spoke. "Focus on Nyanta."

"But…they're both in danger!" Serara replied. Shiroe didn't even look back at the druid girl as he replied:

"If you can't do something, then don't." He spoke harshly. "Focus on what you can instead."

Serara's face became determined as she digested Shiroe's words before raising her staff and pointing it directly at Nyanta.

"Heal!" the girl shouted. In response, Nyanta's HP started going up faster, but only by another point per second.

"What's this?" Demikas taunted as he noticed. He then immediately attacked Nyanta, sending the cat-man flying backwards several yards. Immediately using Phantom step to close the distance, Demikas continued: "Must be hard to get by with one crappy healer, cat!"

"No it isn't, nya." Nyanta replied simply as he parried Demikas's attack.

"Just shut up!" Demikas yelled, disappearing from Nyanta's sight and re-appearing behind the catman, kicking him in the back as he did so. "Your friend, the warrior, is about to go down!" He began laughing uncontrollably at what he perceived as a "unlosable" situation as he continued attacking Nyanta.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Shiroe wasn't even paying attention to the fight at the moment, focusing instead on the person that he was currently telepathic calling.

"Sakura, what's the situation?"

* * *

"Not that good, my strategist." The girl replied from where she was concealed in a tree near the front gate of the city. "It seems that word of the fight going on is finally reaching the Brigandia members stationed at the front gate and they're mobilizing in force to go intervene as well."

" _I see."_ Shiroe's voice replied. _"Is it that big of a problem?"_

"Not particularly, my strategist." Sakura replied honestly. "If you want me to make sure that they never reach the back gate by killing all of them, I can probably pull it off, but it'll be close."

" _What about simply delaying them instead?"_ Shiroe's voice asked.

"Who do you think I am, my strategist?" Sakura replied, a wry smile coming to her face. "If you give me a command, I can do it, no matter how impossible it is. That's my job as one of your 'hands.'"

Over the communication, Sakura could hear Shiroe sigh in exasperation.

" _I feel as if you take stuff like this too seriously."_ the enchanter said. _"But can you delay them without killing them?"_

"I can certainly try my hardest." The girl replied, an answer that apparently satisfied Shiroe.

" _Alright, I'll contact you when things are done over here."_ Shiroe said before closing the communication link. Sakura sighed as she surveyed the group of adventurers that she had to prevent reaching the back gate.

"My strategist never gives out easy orders, does he?" the gunner remarked as she readied herself to spring into her plan, which pretty much consisted of her spamming 'Achilles Heel' over and over again.

Before she could enact her plan, however, she suddenly sensed a presence from behind her. Turning quickly to face it, the girl saw a shadowy figure less than two feet away, jumping straight at her.

The girl's eyes widened as she saw the person.

"You-how?!"

* * *

"Shiroe!"

Naotsugu's voice drew the enchanter's attention as he cut the call with Sakura and turned his attention back to the field of battle. The guardian was smiling back at Shiroe, not even caring about the adventurer that was attacking him at the exact same moment.

Almost in response, Shiroe drew his staff out from under his cloak, snapping it to its full length before slamming it into the ground and giving an order to Serara:

"Ready the spell."

"R-right!" The druid girl replied in response to Shiroe's command.

Meanwhile, at the same time that this exchange was going on, Naotsugu had slammed his shield into the ground in front of him and taken up a completely defensive (even more so than usual) stance behind it.

"Castle of Stone!" the guardian yelled as his whole figure glowed with golden light in response. The nine attackers instantly had their attacks bounce harmlessly off of him, sending them back a few feet and giving Naotsugu some breathing room.

"No damage?!" One of them exclaimed loudly in surprise.

' _Castle of Stone.'_ Shiroe thought to himself. _"This spell blocks all damage for a ten-second period. An emergency-defense skill only available to guardians.'_

"Now." Shiroe commanded to Serara. "Cast all your healing spells on Naotsugu!"

"Alright!" Serara replied as she raised her staff once again. "Healing Wind!"

In response to her spell, Naotsugu's body began glowing green and his HP bar began refilling-

-one point per second.

"Buying time won't save you, Serara!" Demikas yelled from his fight. "Castle of Stone has a ten-minute cooldown!"

"If he's using a skill he can't use again for another ten minutes, that guardian must be out of options." Londark remarked, surveying the situation from his position. "He must be starting to panic."

"When the spell runs out, you're dead!" Demikas smirked at Serara. "You've made this harder than it had to be, Serara."

"Heal…heal quickly!" The druid girl responded, staring a hole into Naotsugu's status screen as she watched the HP bar fill up one point per second.

"Tiger Echo Fist!" Demikas yelled as he slammed the ground, sending Nyanta flying backwards several yards.

"Nyanta-san!" Serara called out worriedly as the cat-man landed agilely on his feet.

"Think it's about time, nya…Shiroe-chi?"

Shiroe's face showed an evil smile as he responded to Nyanta's rhetorical question:

"Here we go, Chief Nyanta."

"What are you talking about?!" Demikas yelled as he closed in for another blow on Nyanta. Nyanta responded by jumping right at Demikas, while at the same time Shiroe yelled:

"Thorn Bind Hostage!"

Instantly at his command, five blue-white thorns burst out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Demikas, somewhat immobilizing the monk.

"A root? That won't work on me!" Demikas yelled out as behind him, Naotsugsu's Castle of Stone ran out of power. Seeing that Nyanta had closed to within melee distance, Demikas aimed a kick at the cat-man-

-only for Nyanta to instead jump and land right on Demikas's outstretched leg.

"Got you!" Demikas yelled out, slamming his right claw into the ground-

-where Nyanta had been a mili-second ago. Instead, the cat-man was now flying above Demikas, having jumped just before Demikas had launched his attack.

The next couple of seconds passed too fast for everyone's eye, but when it had settled down at the end, Nyanta was in a finishing pose as Demikas exploded into a blue light and collapsed on his back, his status box reading his HP at a solitary point and a single thorn wrapped around his chest.

"I-impossible." Londark remarked as Nyanta sheathed both of his swords.

"Our guild master…" one of the other healers stated in complete shock.

"His entire HP vanished in an instant?" Londark said, unable to comprehend what had just happened. "What did you do?!" His face immediately turned into one of rage as he held out his hand, a fireball appearing in it.

"Healers, heal!" he commanded. "We can still-" He never got to finish that sentence, as a skill sound rang out and the fireball disappeared from his hand.

"S-shit…" he gasped out before collapsing to the ground along with the other members of the magic group. As they exploded into a mix of shards and coins, Akatsuki watched them from her position in the middle of where the group had been standing, her weapon at the ready.

' _A single attack from a swashbuckler could never defeat a level-90 monk.'_ Akatsuki thought to herself as she sheathed her weapon. _'Even an assassin, which boasts the highest attack power among weapon-specialization classes, couldn't do that. Most likely, the secret lies in my lord's spell._

 _Thorn Bind Hostage._

 _Those shining thorns deal 1,000 damage to the target for each hit by an ally. Destroying all five thorns does 5,000 damage. Even with the sword damage, that isn't enough to beat Demikas._

 _Which probably means that…_

 _Thorn Bind Hostage has a fifteen-second cooldown. The swashbuckler waited fourteen seconds before beginning his attack, then attacked nine times. First five cut the first spell's thorns, as one attack takes only .22 seconds. And after he destroyed the fifth, my lord recast the thorns, and then he cut four._

 _I didn't see it clearly, but that's the only explanation.'_

Akatsuki narrowed her eyes as she stared at where Shiroe and Nyanta were now conversing.

' _But is it really possible?_

 _That must be why Naotsugu used Castle of Stone. He knew this was their plan. For them to work together that way, without coordinating ahead of time…'_

Akatsuki clenched both her fists in frustration as she finished her thought:

' _I could not do that.'_

"You guys! Put away your swords!" Naotsugu yelled out at the demoralized group of attackers that he was facing. Demikas groaned as he managed to turn his face upwards to face his two victors, both of which weren't even looking at him.

"We came through the Depths of Palm." Shiroe remarked loudly to all those who were standing there. "Akihabara and this city are no longer so far apart as to prevent travel between them. You're finished causing this kind of trouble!"

The other remaining adventurers of Brigandia recoiled back in shock at Shiroe's words.

"We've won this battle." Shiroe finished, turning his attention back to Demikas. "Or do you still want to fight, Demikas?"

"Shut your mouth…" Demikas replied. "I'm sending you all to the Cathedral…over and over again-"

He quickly moved to strike Shiroe while finishing the remainder of his sentence: "-until you break!"

"Stop!" Serara yelled out as she swiped her staff at Demikas, cutting the last remaining thorn on the monk's body. Demikas yelled out a scream of pain as he once again felt the pain of the blue explosion taking away his last HP point.

"Seems you're the one taking a trip to the Cathedral." Shiroe remarked, completely unfazed by Demikas's attempted attack.

"I won't forget you…Enchanter Shiroe!" Demikas yelled out. "I won't forget your face!" His laughter rang through the air as the monk exploded into a bunch of coins and shards.

Satisfied, Shiroe turned his attention back to the last remaining member of their party, a hyperactive monk who was standing in the middle of about a hundred what-looked-like-corpses and waving to him enthusiastically.

"I'm done over here Shiro-kun!" Kanami yelled out, causing Shiroe to sweatdrop as he looked at her situation.

' _That power that Kanami-san has; Kanami-san can almost solo raids by herself.'_ Shiroe thought to himself, a chill running down his spine as he remembered the one time that the hyperactive monk actually _had_ attempted it. Turning away from the rest of the group, he opened a channel to Sakura to tell her that the battle was finished and over with.

* * *

"Yes, my strategist?" The gunner replied as she walked away from the group of immobilized Brigandia members who she had been watching over. She listened for a few seconds to what Shiroe was saying, nodding every once in a while before saying "I understand" and cutting the call.

"So it's all over?" came the voice of a male assassin, who was currently watching over all of the 'prisoners' while Sakura made the call.

"My strategist said since it's all over, I can release them and go to where they are."

"I see." The male assassin replied. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Wait, didn't you say that you were releasing us?" one of the Brigandia members remarked as he watched the exchange between his group's two captors. Sakura nodded in response, her face betraying absolutely no emotion as she spoke the next words without mercy:

"Indeed. However, my strategist never specified _how_ to release you, and I believe the best way to avoid being followed…" Sakura made a show of pulling out a Kodachi from her inventory before finishing her sentence. "…is to simply kill all of you."

"Wait, you can't actually-!" the Brigandia member shouted a second before Sakura immediately cut his throat, dropping his HP to zero instantly and causing him to explode into a shower of sparkles and coins. The other Brigandia members made sounds of horror and shock as the male assassin whistled while watching.

"You're just as brutal as ever, Sakura." He remarked, causing the gunner to shoot him a death glare and cause him to recoil: "Right, Sakura- _san_. Anyhow, you can leave the rest of these guys to me, as you don't need to bloody your hands with the likes of these guys."

Sakura nodded and put away her Kodachi. She started running away, before she stopped and looked back at the assassin.

"Follow me. We need to talk." The girl said simply. The assassin made a 'yes, yes, go now' gesture with his hand before Sakura ran off, satisfied with his answer.

"You're going to release us now, right?" asked one of the remaining Brigandia members, who was clearly terrified at his guildmate being executed brutally in front of him. "Thank you for saving us from that gi-"

"Did I say that?" asked the assassin as he drew his weapon and walked in front of the Brigandia member, smiling at the adventurer while having no expression in his eyes. "I simply said I didn't want to dirty the princess's hands."

The sound of screams rang out into the air.

* * *

Shiroe only had to wait a few minutes from when he called Sakura to seeing the girl emerge from the nearby forest and run up to the other members of the group. At his signal, Shiroe, Nyanta, Naotsugu, and Sakura all pulled out their gryphon whistles and blew, their mounts answering to their call immediately.

From where we was, Nyanta extended his hand out to Serara.

"Let's go, Serara-san." The cat-man said.

"Eh?" Serara replied, too stunned at the sight of a gryphon to speak before brightening up and accepting his invitation.

"Akatsuki!"

Shiroe's voice caused Akatsuki to look up from where she was watching Nyanta and Serara's exchange to find Shiroe extending his arm out to her while mounted on his own gryphon.

"Let's go." The enchanter simply said. Aktasuki smiled and nodded, before accepting his invitation and seating herself behind him.

"Let's go!" Naotsugu exclaimed as he soared into the sky, the Nyanta/Serara, Shiroe/Akatsuki, Sakura/Kanami gryphons immediately following behind. "We're getting out of here!"

"My lord…" Akatsuki started, staring straight into Shiroe's face.

"What is it, Akatsuki?" Shiroe replied, turning his head to look at the assassin. Akatsuki didn't answer, simply placing her head gently on Shiroe's back. Behind her, Kanami was staring a hole into Akatsuki's back out of pure jealousy while Sakura was deep in thought and didn't see what was going on ahead of her.

"Nothing." She replied. Shiroe smiled in response before turning his attention back to what was in front of him.

"Let's go home. To Akihabara."

* * *

The male assassin looked up into the sky as he sheathed his weapon, noticing the group of four gryphons taking off into the sky. He quickly bowed deeply in their direction before turning and walking back into the city of Susukino.

* * *

 **Woo! Another chapter!**

 **Hopefully, I don't ever have something happen along the lines of what I explained at the beginning of the chapter and can have more regular updates.**

 **Anyhow, please R &R and enjoy!**

 **Next Part: Akiba e no Kikan (Return to Akihabara)**


	9. Akiba e no Kikan

**Not really that much noteworthy to point out here. I do thank everyone for reading even with my long hiatus last chapter. And this one too now that I think about it. ._.**

 **Also, I graduate this Saturday. Yay real life! Yay final, final exams! (No pun intended) Yay the extremely good economy at the moment! ;_;**

 **With that said, please R &R and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing Log Horizon-related.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Akiba e no Kikan (Return to Akihabara)**

* * *

 _Non-player characters…people in the game that aren't characters. They say only predetermined lines, have no personalities, and exist merely to fulfill their game roles._

 _In Elder Tale, players are called Adventurers, and NPCs are known as People of the Land. But after the Apocalypse, something changed._

* * *

 _ **Back in Akihabara**_

"Serara, you're okay, right?" Marielle, her voice full of concern, spoke into the connection she was holding. After receiving confirmation, a small tear came to her left eye as she replied: "Ah, I'm so glad…I'm really relieved."

Behind her, the other members of the Crescent Moon Alliance were silently celebrating with each other at the news that Serara was okay.

* * *

"Yes, I'm sorry I worried you." Serara's voice replied at Marielle's exclamation of relief. "I'll see you later then, goodbye." With that, Serara hung up her call, before spinning around to look at the other members of the rescue group that had been standing behind her.

"I really am safe now, aren't I?" the young druid asked.

"We went over the Lyport Channel." Shiroe replied to her question.

"They don't have gryphons." Nyanta added onto Shiroe's words, holding his hands apart in a carefree manner. "We'll be fine now, nya."

Serara's eyes began watering as she formulated a reply to what was just said.

"Now that I'm safe, I just feel kind of…" she said before falling to her knees on the ground in complete relief. "Everyone, thank you very much!"

The other members of the group could only smile in reply as the druid girl broke down into tears of relief.

All of a sudden, cutting into the warm atmosphere that had formed around the party, Akatsuki's stomach began grumbling loudly, causing the assassin to look down at herself with a displeased face.

"Ah, now that she feels safe, you feel hungry!" Naotsugu exclaimed loudly from behind Akatsuki.

"D-don't blame it on someone else, baka Naotsugu!" Akatsuki quickly replied, a tinge of red in her face as she did so.

"I'm hungry too" Naotsugu replied in a peace offering to the assassin, as the other members of the group began laughing at the scene that was unfolding.

"Well then," Shiroe remarked after he had stopped laughing, "why don't we take a break and set up camp here for the night then?"

The other group members nodded in reply at the reasonable suggestion and immediately split up to do different menial tasks. Akatsuki started cutting up sticks into smooth shapes, while Naotsugu and Shiroe began setting up tents for the entire group.

"So we're supposed to set these up ourselves?" Naotsugu asked, looking at the tent nail that he was holding.

"Naotsugu, spread out the ground sheet." Shiroe replied from where he was hammering another tent nail into the ground.

"Uh, Shiroe." Naotsugu began to ask, turning around to face the location where the enchanter was working. "Since when have you been into camping?"

"I once read about it in a book." Shiroe replied as he set up one of the tent poles (Naotsugu held onto the ropes connecting it onto the ground). "Although, I'm sure in the real world it wouldn't be this easy…"

"You never know what will come in handy in this world." Naotsugu replied, grinning at Shiroe as he did so.

Meanwhile, a little off to the side, Nyanta and Serara were busy collecting wood for the camp when Serara was startled by a noise coming from a bush behind her. Turning around, the young druid found that a wild deer had emerged from the brush and was now standing, staring at the two of them.

"A wild deer?" Serara asked, looking straight back at the animal. "So there are animals that aren't monsters?"

Nyanta didn't reply, but was instead sizing up the deer with a hand rubbing his chin while doing so.

"This is my time to shine, nyan." The cat-man announced, a twinkle appearing in his eye as he said so.

"Eh?"

* * *

"Hahaha! This is too easy!"

Sakura looked around with a huge sweatdrop on the back of her head at the scene. Both her and a certain monk, who was standing in the middle of the river completely soaked and laughing like a mad(wo)man, were surrounded by a huge number of fish, all of which were currently flopping around like…well, a fish out of water. Which was exactly the case in this instance.

"I don't think fishing is as simple as simply using Tiger Echo Fist on the middle of a river…" Sakura replied to Kanami's remark, causing the monk to let out another loud laugh, causing Sakura to sweatdrop once again. A few minutes passed in silence as Kanami continued to blast fish out of the water and Sakura watched (occasionally stepping to the side to avoid fish that were directly flying at her face).

"I'm honestly surprised though, Kanami-san." Sakura said after a while, breaking the silence.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Kanami asked, turning her attention away from what she was doing for a moment to focus on the girl.

"With all of us trapped in this world, I thought you would be the first one to drag us all around to explore everything, rushing headlong into danger without any second thoughts." Sakura said, adding a small jab at the end of her sentence. "You of all people know that all of us would willingly follow you if you did that, even my strategist, although he might raise complaints about the way."

Kanami didn't answer for a moment as she launched another skill at the river, exploding yet more fish onto dry land (which were then dully picked up by Sakura and placed into containers that Kanami had been carrying in her inventory.

"Hmmmm…I honestly don't know why either." Kanami admitted, causing the gunner to look at her. "I guess if I had to say a specific reason, it's been entirely because of Shiro-kun."

"My strategist?" Sakura asked, both a little surprised and confused. Kanami put a finger to her mouth as she continued with her explanation:

"Ever since we've been trapped in here, Shiro-kun has been emitting this 'heavily thinking' aura around him." Kanami explained, only causing more confusion to Sakura as she attempted to decipher what Kanami had said. "It's kinda similar to what he was emitting when we were running the _Hell's Apocalypse_ raid a few days before I went to Europe."

' _Wasn't that your fault because you rushed in without any preparations and he had to make up plans and strategies on the fly?'_ Sakura quietly thought to herself, but her exterior expression didn't betray her inner thoughts.

"…plus, I'm in no hurry to go see everything this time." Kanami finished up her thought. Sakura looked completely in shock at this statement.

"Why's that?" she asked. Kanami once again caused a huge explosion in the river before looking back at the young girl.

"Shiro-kun promised me." Kanami simply answered. Sakura made an even more confused face at her response.

"Promised?"

"Back at Depths of Palm. Shiro-kun promised he would show me all the new sights of this world!" Kanami threw her hands up in the air at her exclamation, causing yet another explosion in the river with a gleefully happy look on her face.

Sakura sighed heavily in response.

"My strategist, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" the gunner asked into the air.

* * *

"Achoo!"

"Are you alright, my lord?" Akatsuki asked worriedly as Shiroe sneezed. Shiroe waved off her concerns in response.

"At last!" Naotsugu exclaimed loudly, collapsing into an empty chair after helping Shiroe and Akatsuki finish setting up the camp. "We have a place to sleep!"

"If this were the game, we'd only need to log out and go to sleep." Shiroe said in response, causing both Naotsugu and Akatsuki to look at him.

"Since we're here, we might as well have fun doing it the hard way." Naotsugu replied to Shiroe's remark, leaning back further in his chair as he did so.

A few minutes later, the three were sprawled out at the table in despair at what was in front of them.

"But…our food." Shiroe said the obvious.

"It looks so yummy…" Naotsugu groaned with tears flowing out of his eyes. "…but it doesn't taste like anything."

"Serara and the others are late." Akatsuki remarked as she took a sip of the tea she was drinking (she had given up on the food after one bite).

All of a sudden, Naotsugu stood up and started looking around, causing everything on the table to clatter and startling both Shiroe and Akatsuki.

"Something smells!" the guardian announced loudly, sniffing the air all around.

"What's gotten into you?" Shiroe asked, a little disturbed by the guardian's behavior. All of a sudden, the smell hit both Shiroe and Akatsuki and the two of them starting sniffing the air as well. "What's this? The smell of cooked meat?"

* * *

"Looks like our hungry campers could smell the food cooking, nya." Nyanta announced as he looked up from the grill to see Shiroe, Akatsuki, and Naotsugu emerge into the cooking site.

"But I don't know about tasteless meat, even if it does smell good." Naotsugu said dejectedly as he and the other two sat down and were handed some meat by Serara. All three of them bit into the meat with little enthusiasm.

Followed by some silence. Which was broken by a large chain of theatrics that would give drama clubs a run for their money.

"IT'S DELICIOUS!" Naotsugu exclaimed into the air after he had taken his initial bite.

"This is…" Akatsuki managed to say between bites from where she was eagerly chowing down on her food. "I can't describe it! Amazing!"

Next to her, Shiroe was doing the exact same thing.

"The texture when you bite into it…" the enchanter exclaimed.

"The sweetness of the fat!" Naotsugu exclaimed, tears freely flowing from his eyes.

"Just the right amount of salt, with rosemary for a secret ingredient..." Akatsuki said as she finished off her first stick of meat and immediately picked up a second, biting into it immediately.

Shiroe adjusted his glasses after he had finished off his first stick, causing a twinkle to shine from them.

"This is, without a doubt…"

"THE TASTE OF REAL FOOD!" All three of them shouted into the night sky, a golden aura radiating off of all of them and causing Nyanta to shield his eyes a bit.

"Nya." The cat-man said in response.

"You're amazing, Chief! More!" Naotsugu exclaimed, his hands moving in a 'gimme, gimme' motion.

"Now, now, nya." Nyanta said in response. "Don't be in such a rush, nya. There's plenty, nyan."

Meanwhile, off to the side, Serara was sweatdropping at the scene (which she imagined as a bunch of baby birds begging their mother for food).

After calming down a bit, Shiroe asked a serious question that had been bugging him:

"But how?"

"Nyan." Nyanta replied, before starting with his explanation. "Prepare the ingredients, and pick the item you want from the menu, and it will make you a food item that looks just like the real thing, nya."

"Yes, exactly like the game." Shiroe replied.

"But it doesn't taste like anything." Naotsugu added, failing to see where Nyanta was going with his explanation.

"Get away from thinking of this in terms of a game, nya." Nyanta continued, waving a finger at the both of them. "Ingredient items like fruits and vegetables taste like the real things, right, nya?"

Seeing the three whom he was explaining to nod, Nyanta continued: "So just do what I've done here. Don't make it from the menu. Prepare and cook the ingredients with your own hands, nya."

"We tried that as well." Shiroe replied as both he and Naotsugu fixed up a stick of meat the same way Nyanta had done it.

"But look…" Naotsugu continued as he and Shiroe placed their respective meat sticks on the grill. There was a failure sound and both food sticks turned into a mass of blobby purple-blackish goo that did not resemble food in any way. "Just look at it!"

"Try to boil it, and it becomes a weird paste." Shiroe said. "No matter what we tried, none of us could make anything." Shiroe looked back up at Nyanta before continuing: "So we thought that was the rule of this world."

"That happened because the person who made it wasn't a chef, nya, or didn't have the requisite cooking level, nya." Nyanta answered their questions.

"Which means…" Naotsugu started, seeing a pattern forming in the conversation.

"That's correct, nya." Nyanta replied, as his status screen appeared in the air for everyone to read. "My subclass is chef."

"I see..." Shiroe said, seemingly deep in thought at what Nyanta had said. "Then to make it for real, someone with the appropriate skill must make it?"

' _He's right. Until now, I've been thinking of things in game terms. Which means…"_

There was a few moments of silence between the group as they sat around, staring at the cooking fire. All of a sudden, Akatsuki stood up from where she was sitting, causing everyone to look at her.

"Master Nyanta…" the assassin started, before getting cut off by Naotsugu.

"M-master?!"

"Allow me to introduce myself properly." Akatsuki continued, completely ignoring Naotsugu's remark. "My name is Akatsuki; my class is Assassin. My level is 90."

"You were splendid back there, nyan." Nyanta replied, nodding his head in acknowledgment.

"Not at all." Akatsuki humbly replied. "I was impressed by the way you fought."

"What is this?" Naotsugu cut in after Akatsuki had finished her sentence. "This isn't how you acted towards me…"

"Of course not, Bakatsugu." Akatsuki replied with a deadpan look on her face.

"Don't shorten it!" Naotsugu replied.

"Then, Talltsugu." Akatsuki amended

"That isn't better!" Naotsugu yelled back.

"I see you have good companions, Shiroe-chi." Nyanta remarked as he watched the two fight each other with death glares. With a sweeping hand, he led Shiroe and the other's attention to Serara, who was busy eating another strip of meat. "Now, you too Serara."

"Ah, right!" Serara replied, standing up from her sitting position. "I apologize for not properly introducing myself. I'm Serara, of the Crescent Moon Alliance. I'm still a novice druid at level 19, and my subclass is maid. A-and, I'm sorry for the trouble I caused with my poor healing skills!" Serara finished, bowing deeply in apology as she did so.

"It was more than enough." Naotsugu waved off the apology in a kind way. Shiroe nodded in agreement.

"Thank you." Serara replied. "And, Shiroe-sama, thank you…thank you so much!"

"Uh, no…I didn't do anything special…" Shiroe replied, looking flustered. At Serara's inquisitive look, Nyanta offered an explanation:

"Shiroe-chi always been easily embarrassed, nyan." Nyanta explained. "Especially when it comes to Kanami-chi."

"Let me guess, Serara." Said Naotsugu, making a rectangle with his fingers and peering at Serara through them. "You've always been told you're the third cutest in class, but you get more love letters than anyone else!"

"H-huh?" Serara replied, a sweatdrop forming on the back of her head.

 **BANG**

Naotsugu went flying away from Akatsuki's knee strike, Nyanta clapping at she did so.

"My lord, I kneed that rude man in the face."

"Enough with the knees, and enough after-action reports!" Naotsugu exclaimed violently, holding his nose.

"While I was at it, I confiscated his meat." Akatsuki finished, holding up what had formerly been Naotsugu's food. Naotsugu made a face and the others laughed.

"Speaking of Kanami-chi," Nyanta pipped up, "where is she and Sora-chi, Shiroe-chi?"

* * *

"I think you had too much fun, Kanami-san." Sakura said as the two of them walked back from where Kanami was…well, having too much fun in the river. "It's already dark and we've probably missed any sort of dinner that the others ate, if they're even still awake at this point."

"Lighten up!" Kanami laughed in response. "We caught a lot of fish anyhow for the others."

"I'm sure they'll be surprised." Sakura replied, looking at the two full buckets that Kanami had procured out of somewhere, and that were now completely full of fish she had quite literally blasted out of the water. "Although, it looks like we won't be able to eat them anytime soon, unfortunately."

Kanami didn't answer, and instead simply dropped both buckets and dropped into a fighting stance at the three figures that had appeared in front of them. The three figures simply stood there, blocking Kanami and Sakura's path back to the camp, not reacting at all to Kanami dropping into a fighting stance.

The one in the front walked a few steps closer to the two of them before stopping in front and speaking:

"It's been a while, _Hime_." The figure spoke, her voice dripping heavily with sarcasm and distain as she did so. "Have you been well?"

"Probably better than you want me to be." Sakura answered, returning the figure's glare with one of her own. The figure clutched at her heart in mock shock.

"I'm hurt that you would think that I think ill of you." She replied, obviously not meaning a single word. Kanami, meanwhile, was looking back and forth between the two of them.

"You two know each other?" the monk asked.

"Most unfortunately." Sakura replied. "Anyhow, what does the leader of the sell-out faction want?"

The figure let out a loud laugh.

"Oh, how naïve you are, hime." She said after she had managed to control herself. "Sell-out? It's simply called taking advantage of what's available to you."

Sakura and Kanami just continued to stare at the figure while she laughed once again.

"So, what do you want?" Kanami called out loudly, not understanding what was going on, but nonetheless trying to interject herself into the conversation. The figure shot her a disgusted look.

"Unrelated people should make themselves scarce." The figure said, waving Kanami off like a bug. "Especially those that stoop so low as to steal the name of a _respected_ member of this server."

Kanami turned to look at Sakura for a second, who replied with a 'to be expected' look before turning back to look at the figure, who had continued on without stopping:

"I'll make this quick so you don't waste our time." She said. Suddenly, the figure held her hand out, palm upstretched, pointed straight at Sakura.

"The complete patch notes for Novasphere. Hand them over."

* * *

"I can't move…" Naotsugu announced loudly as he collapsed on his back, belly completely expanded from the amount of food he had just ate.

"You ate too much, Pigtsugu." Akatsuki remarked from where she was sitting as she and Shiroe looked at Naotsugu.

"So you two have known each other for a long time?" Serara asked, causing Akatsuki and Shiroe to look back at her across the campfire. "Right, Nyanta-san, Shiroe-san?"

"Naotsugu, Kanami-chi, and Sora-chi as well, nya." Nyanta added to Serara's remark. "When this was a game, we were all in the same group, nya." The cat-man closed his eyes as he continued with his explanation: "It was called the Debauchery Tea Party."

Akatsuki gave a start as she heard the name.

"That's right…" The assassin muttered in response to Nyanta's statement. "I heard about a legendary party that completed many difficult quests." She looked at Shiroe to get confirmation on her next statement: "That was my lord and everyone else except for Naotsugu?"

"No, me too!" Naotsugu said, slipping into frame while he said so.

"Then you were all in the same guild?" Serara asked.

"It wasn't a guild." Naotsugu replied. "More like a hangout than anything formal."

"Each of us was in a different guild, and was quite different from the others." Nyanta added, chuckling as he did so. "We had nothing in common except our enjoyment with adventuring together under our leader, Kanami-chi, nya."

Akatsuki looked shocked once again at Nyanta's latest bombshell.

"Kanami was the _leader_ of the Debauchery Tea Party?" the assassin asked, her voice quite unbelieving. "She's really that Kanami that's spoken of in the rumors?"

"What kind of rumors are they…?" Shiroe asked no one in particular at Akatsuki's statement.

"Well, KR always said that Kanami didn't so much as lead us, but rather led the way into chaos, pulling us along behind her." Naotsugu remarked loudly as he looked over at Shiroe and grinned, the enchanter replying in kind.

Meanwhile, while watching the two of them, Akatsuki came to a realization.

' _That explains it.'_ The assassin thought to herself. _'How my lord and his friends have griffons, a high level quest reward, and the way they work so well together.'_

Her hands clenched together on her legs as she continued with her thoughts:

' _I've fought with my lord several times. But I couldn't even approach what they can do together.'_ Her head lowered before she vowed to herself: _'I must practice more.'_

"Akatsuki?" Shiroe asked, looking over at the assassin.

"Did you eat too much?" Naotsugu asked.

"No…" Akatsuki replied, snapping out of her thoughts. "But just now, you told a lie."

"Eh?"

Akatsuki put on a completely deadpan face before continuing: "Naotsugu couldn't possibly have been a member of such a legendary party."

"It's not a lie!" Naotsugu exclaimed.

* * *

If Sakura had been surprised at all at the figure's demand, she didn't show it in her face or her body language.

"The Novasphere Pioneer notes…huh…"

"It's such a terrible shame that only the lead tester and the developers themselves get the full patch notes." The figure continued, holding her hands wide in a majestic expression. "Imagine the good that it would do in the hands of someone like me, who would spread it out to all the players in this world, rather than keeping it locked up!"

"…For a price, of course."

"Of course!" the figure laughed as she confirmed Sakura's sentence. "Imagine all the money that would flow from adventurers who would pay to have information about new gear, drops, and monster info. It would be a spectacular gold mine!" Her eyes narrowed and she stopped laughing before staring right at the gunner. "It's our privilege as supertesters to profit off of our knowledge from those stupid players, is it not?"

"…" Sakura was completely silent as she sent a death glare back at the figure.

"You're wrong."

The three figures and Sakura both turned to look in surprise at the speaker of the last line: Kanami.

"Sellling information? That doesn't make the game fun, it makes it easy." Kanami said confidently, her voice never wavering as she did so. "The fun part of games is experiencing new things for yourselves, not being told what to do!"

"Name thieves should keep to themselves!" The figure snapped back, but it was obvious she hadn't been expecting Kanami to respond. Behind Kanami, Sakura smiled.

"I knew that you two wouldn't see logic when it hits you in the face." The figure spat out, her voice turning heavily hostile. "Now, don't make me say it again. _Hand over those notes_."

"…unfortunately for you." Sakura said, a confident grin on her usually emotionless face, "I don't see it your way, but rather that of my strategist and Kanami-san here."

"Then I suppose I'll just kill you and take it from your dropped items myself." The figure said, drawing her weapon as the two behind her did so in kind. Kanami readied up her fighting stance once again while Sakura-

-did nothing. Except shrug her shoulders with an overexaggurated sigh.

"In addition," the gunner said, "I don't even have the notes myself. They only go to the head supertester and the developers."

"Wh-That's impossible!" The figure shouted at the young girl, her posture giving away the fact that she was completely in shock at Sakura's last statement. "You're the head supertester!"

Kanami looked back in surprise at Sakura at the figure's remark, but Sakura was shaking her head in negative confirmation.  
"I'm the _lead_ supertester." Sakura corrected, holding her finger outstretched and waving it back and forth in a 'you're wrong' type of gesture. "There's a tiny difference in the titles. And positions, I should add."

"So that means…"

"That's correct. Even if you kill me, it'll be fruitless." Sakura said. "I don't have the notes, and even if I did, I wouldn't give them to you even if it meant my life."

The figure looked like a mixture of complete shock and anger as Sakura's comment registered with her. Suddenly, she made a gesture at the other two figures, both of whom immediately ran away. The last one followed, before turning back to face Sakura and Kanami.

"I'll remember both of your faces." She remarked before turning and fleeing after her companions.

There were a few moments of silence before Kanami lowered her fighting pose, turning to face Sakura.

"Who were those players?" Kanami asked. "And what were they talking about, the _complete_ patch notes?"

Sakura didn't reply, simply turning back towards the direction of the camp.

"…Kanami-san, I suppose there is a lot I have to explain to you and my strategist later." The gunner said. "But now is not the time."

With that, the gunner started walking briskly back towards the camp location, Kanami hurrying to catch up with a cheerful look on her face.

* * *

"That said," Nyanta was continuing off of where he had left off previously, "we went many different places, nya."

"We also had many friends." Naotsugu added. "It was fun!"

"Nyan." Nyanta agreed. Just then, there was a rustling off to the left and Kanami and Sakura emerged from the darkness, the former carrying two buckets full of (not so) freshly caught fish.

"You took a while, nyan." Nyanta remarked.

"I'm starving!" Kanami exclaimed loudly, dropping both buckets onto the ground and flopping into one of the seats. "It's too bad all the food tastes like nothing though!"

"Is that so, nyan?" Nyanta remarked, a glint appearing in one of his eyes as he did so. "It looks like it's my time to shine once again, nyan."

With that, Nyanta went back to the cooking fire, carrying one of the buckets of fish that Kanami had brought, while Serara lagged behind him carrying the other. Akatsuki and Naotsugu were once again embroiled in an argument while Kanami was continuously complaining about both being hungry yet not wanting to eat due to the food in this world having no taste.

Meanwhile, Sakura went up to Shiroe.

"My strategist, a word if I may?" the gunner asked. Shiroe looked at the girl and, noticing the serious look in her eyes, nodded silently, following her out of the campsite.

* * *

"My strategist." Sakura remarked suddenly once the two of them were out of earshot of the rest of the camp. "What do you think of this world?"

Shiroe was taken aback by the question.

"More specifically, what do you think of experiencing this world in this entirety for yourself, compared to being told about this world?" Sakura continued without giving Shiroe a chance to respond.

"Of course, it would be nice to have knowledge before you go out to experience it on your own." Shiroe answered honestly, "but at the same time, I find myself missing being pulled into things by Kanami-san, and simply letting me experience items for myself. Naturally, this includes this world as well." Shiroe adjusted his glasses as he stared at Sakura, not quite understanding the meaning behind these questions. "Don't tell Kanami-san that I said that, though."

Sakura giggled at Shiroe's response, taking the enchanter aback.

"As expected of my strategist." The gunner replied. She made a motion in front of her face, which Shiroe knew to be her accessing her status menu. A few moments later, an item in the shape of a book appeared in the young girl's hand.

"My strategist." Sakura said, a deadly serious look in her eyes. "I have a request to you from the bottom of my heart."

"…" Shiroe was silent as he simply nodded, not knowing what words to say at Sakura's facial expression.

"…this book…" Sakura said, clutching it tightly to her chest. "…I value it more than my life itself. Please…" the gunner suddenly held out the book towards Shiroe, "keep this with you, forever, and protect it for me."

"…If it's so important to you, why not simply deposit it into the bank or keep it yourself?" Shiroe replied, asking the logical questions. Sakura looked to the side as she continued to hold out the book to Shiroe.

"…I trust nothing in this world. Not even myself." The gunner replied. "Not with this. Except for you, my strategist."

Shiroe was silent at the girl's extreme trusting attitude towards him, before slowly reaching out his hand and taking the book from her grasp. Sakura smiled as he did so.

"Thank you, my strategist." The gunner remarked, a smile on her face before she brushed past Shiroe and back towards the camp. Shiroe turned to look at her go, before turning to look at the book that was now in his possession.

On the title was a simple two-line phrase:

 _Novasphere Pioneers_

 _Implemented (Final) Patch Notes_.

Not knowing why Sakura had entrusted him with this, none the less why she even had such an item in the first place, Shiroe put the book into his inventory before turning back towards the camp, determined to answer the trust that the girl had placed in him.

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, Shiroe and the others continued making their way back towards Akihabara, stopping to make camp every night (and especially to enjoy food that actually had taste). It was about five days later when the group suddenly found themselves camping on a plain, with Nyanta cooking up some unfortunate fish that Kanami had once again blasted out of a river.

' _Nyanta-san is so cool!'_ Serara suddenly thought to herself as she looked at the cat-man's back from where she was sitting and eating. _'A handsome young man, kind and always willing to help! No, I think he's older…a handsome middle-aged man?'_ Serara took another bite of the fish that she was eating as she continued with her thoughts: ' _But he's so in shape! Next to him, I look kind of fat…'_

The young druid's thoughts were beginning to show in her facial expressions as she continued: _'I am a little overweight…but! But!'_

' _So obvious…'_ Shiroe, Akatsuki, Naotsugu, and Sakura thought to themselves from where they were sitting (having a completely full view of Serara's delusions). Nyanta didn't notice due to Serara sitting slightly behind him and Kanami didn't notice due to chowing down eagerly on her own food.

"So she's after middle-aged guys?" Naotsugu whispered to Shiroe.

"He just seems like an adult." Shiroe replied, referring to Nyanta as he did so.

"That that meowing is annoying, though." Naotsugu continued, curling up his fists into mock cat paws. Shiroe laughed at Naotsugu's imitation.

"Serara has good taste." Akatsuki suddenly remarked from Shiroe's other side, shocking both of them and causing them to look at her.

"You feel the same way about him?" Shiroe asked, shock evident in his voice.

"The master is a first-class swordsman." Akatsuki explained her reasoning, causing both Shiroe and Naotsugu to sigh in response.

' _Speaking of that…'_ Shiroe thought to himself. _'Chief Nyanta is all right with them?'_

"My lord, my lord." Akatsuki remarked, pulling on Shiroe's sleeve and causing the enchanter to look at her. "You aren't a swordsman, but you are very talented as well." The assassin continued, a small hint of red in her face as she did so. Kanami, meanwhile, looked up from her meal and looked all around, as her 'Shiro-kun is in danger!' alarm was going off.

"Oh…are you trying to console me?" Shiroe said, grinning sheepishly at Akatsuki's remark.

"Nope." Akatsuki replied, looking away from Shiroe was a strange look on her face.

* * *

"When you see her like this, she really does look young." Naotsugu remarked as he, Shiroe, Akatsuki and Sakura were watching over Serara's sleeping form (Nyanta was further in the cave while Kanami was taking the first watch outside).

"How old do you suppose she is?" Sakura remarked.

"In this world, you can't tell by looking at them." Naotsugu answered. "Just based on looks, you'd say Akatsuki was in elemen-"

 **BANG**

Akatsuki once again sent Naotsugu into the wall with her fist this time, as Sakura sweatdropped at the scene.

"Middle school, maybe?" Shiroe remarked, looking back at Sakura's sleeping form. "Which would make her the same age as those twins."

"Twins?" Naotsugu asked.

"I ran into them when this was a game." Shiroe explained. "The girl was a shrine maiden, and the boy was a samurai." Shiroe's facial expression softened as he remembered his first encounter with the two of them. The enchanter suddenly stood up, walking outside with the others following him down to where Kanami was skipping rocks across the water.

"Oh, Shiro-kun!" The monk exclaimed as she noticed the others getting closer. "The sky's reflection on the lake is beautiful tonight!"

"Indeed." Shiroe answered, sitting down on a rock next to the monk.

"Have you always been that nice?" Naotsugu asked, continuing the conversation from inside the cave. Kanami looked confused as Sakura moved over and started whispering in her ear to get her up to speed.

"I don't like it when people come to me because they want something…" Shiroe said, causing Nyanta to "nya" in response. "But those two were beginners. They seemed to be having a great time adventuring." He looked back up at the lake as he continued: "So I showed them the ropes for a while, using the Teacher System."

"Teacher System?" Akatsuki asked, not recognizing the phrase.

"A system that lets high-level players lower their levels to play with lower-leveled characters." Sakura explained, having just finished bringing Kanami back up to speed with the conversation. "Hardly anyone uses it though, the last I checked."

"It's risky." Naotsugu remarked, picking up from where Sakura left off. "All your stats took a huge hit, even if only temporarily."

"Why would you drop your level?" Akatsuki asked. She thought to herself for a moment before continuing: "Wait, I see."

"You're pretty smart, Akatsuki-san, nya." Nyanta remarked from where he was standing.

"And where are those two now?" Naotsugu asked, sitting down on a rock nearby.

"On my friend list." Shiroe said, while at the same time bringing up the said friend list. "The sister is Minori, and her younger brother is Tohya." His face hardened as he continued: "I saw them after the Apocalypse."

"Then they were caught up in it." Naotsugu remarked.

"I was with them right up until it happened." Shiroe confirmed Naotsugu's remark with one of his own. "Then, the next thing I knew, I was back in Akihabara, and they were gone."

"I was also teleported, into an abandoned building." Akatsuki said.

"You should have said something to them." Kanami remarked as she skipped another rock across the lake.

"I'm sure they're having a hard time." Naotsugu added.

"…yeah." Shiroe replied. There was a few minutes of silence, during which Nyanta suggested that he brew everyone some tea, which everyone accepted gratefully, which led them to the situation now, with all of them sitting around the cooking fire.

"I'm sure Shiroe-chi had his reasons, nya." Nyanta said, picking up the conversation from where it had left off.

"We had our hands full." Shiroe confirmed, nodding in thanks as he accepted a cup of tea from Nyanta. "I doubt we had the energy to spare…and when I saw them, they were both in a guild."

"Yeah?" Naotsugu asked.

"At the time, they were level eight." Shiroe added. "Now, though, they might be a little higher. If they're in a guild, they should be fine."

Naotsugu nodded, before immediately closing the gap with Shiroe.

"By the way, Shiroe…" The guardian said, his face dangerously close to Shiroe as he said so (and causing the enchanter to take a step back), "was Minori-chan cute?"

"I don't know…" Shiroe replied. "In the real world, all I could hear was her voice, and when I saw her, I couldn't see her face."

"No, no, no." Naotsugu said, seeing that Shiroe had missed his point. "You can tell some things from the voice…"

"Stupid perverted Naotsugu." Akatsuki suddenly remarked from her sitting position.

"Better than being a closet pervert!" Naotsugu yelled back as Sakura smiled watching the two of them bicker once again.

"Shut up. You're making my tea taste bad." Akatsuki replied.

"So let's talk about which is better, being closeted or open!" Naotsugu yelled back.

Meanwhile, as this was going on, Shiroe had a thoughtful look on his face, staring at nothing in particular.

* * *

"This looks bad." Sakura remarked as she looked upwards at the incoming thunderclouds overhead.

"Hey, Shiro!" Naotsugu called over to Shiroe from his gryphon. "The rain is closing in!"

"Shiroe-chi, we should probably find some shelter soon." Nyanta added.

"Yes." Shiroe agreed with the both of them. "In this zone, I think there's a village past those woods."  
The group quickly landed, de-summoning their respective gryphons before walking quickly towards the direction that Shiroe had pointed out. Within a few minutes, they reached the small farming village that Shiroe had talked about.

"Where are we?" Naotsugu asked as the group walked in through the gate.

"The south end of the Arb Highlands." Sakura replied.

"…Shiroe-chi." Nyanta suddenly remarked from where he was walking beside the enchanter.

"Yes?" Shiroe responded.

"Have you been alone since then, nya?" Nyanta asked.

"Eh?" Shiroe replied, not understanding.

"Without joining any guilds?" Nyanta continued.

"Wh-what about you?" Shiroe quickly asked back, deflecting Nyanta's question. "What happened with that guild? Um, you know…the Cat Food guild!"

"What's that?" Serara asked.

"A proud organization comprised solely of cat people, nya." Nyanta answered, putting his hand up to his chin as he explained. "I loved sitting on the porch, but the house was getting old…something like that, nya."

"Ehhhhh…" Serara remarked as she suddenly thought of an old house with a bunch of Nyanta look-alikes all around the place. "How wonderful…"

"But it couldn't handle the bad weather, so half the house caved in, nya." Nyanta continued, telling what had happened.

"Then it basically disbanded…" Shiroe finished Nyanta's story.

"What about you two?" Naotsugu asked, directing his question at Sakura and Kanami, both of whom looked at him.

"I can't join a guild with my standing." Sakura replied. "Even on my non-tester account, I can't afford to grant favoritism to any one group or guild in particular."

"But you still adventured with the Tea Party." Naotsugu pointed out. Sakura waved off his point.

"That's different. There was no official group or guild that I could be biased toward for that effect." Sakura said. She then turned her head to the side and said something that sounded suspiciously like "even though I wasn't supposed to, it was too much fun to not play with you guys…"

"What about you, Kanami-chi?" Nyanta asked. "You were never in a guild, even while leading the Tea Party, nya."

Kanami looked thoughtful as she formulated a reply to the question.

"…I suppose I'm still waiting for the perfect guild for me." Kanami replied, grinning eagerly as she did so. "With someone who can stand by my side and keep up with me no matter what happens, through thick and thin."

Sakura shot a subtle look at Shiroe at this remark, knowing there was only one person that Kanami could be referring to. Suddenly, the rain started pouring heavily, causing the group to run for the front door of the nearest house to them.

"Hello!" Naotsugu called out, knocking on the front door of the house.

"We're travelers." Shiroe said as Naotsugu opened the door. "Could you put us up for the night?"

"Oh, my…Adventurers?" An old man remarked as he came to the front door to greet them. "That's a rare sight."

"Yo!" Naotsugu said, holding up a thumbs up in greeting.

"Welcome to the village of Arb." The old man said in response.

' _A non-player character?'_ Shiroe thought to himself. _'A Person of the Land?'_

"My name is Fedor. I'm the village ombudsman." The old man, now known as Fedor from his status screen, continued. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you." Shiroe responded in kind.

"Eh? You have a name…" Naotsugu remarked, a little bit rudely. However, Fedor either didn't notice or simply brushed it off, inviting the group into the barn that was nearby.

"You may use this barn as you like." Fedor said, after the group had gone inside.

"Thank you." Shiroe replied. Suddenly, Naotsugu and Kanami both rushed past them, jumping straight into the piles of straw that were sitting around.

"Straw!" Naotsugu exclaimed as he did so.

"Move." Akatsuki remarked at him as she dried her hair with a towel. "We have to give everyone some."

"What?" Naotsugu asked, shooting her an angry look.

Meanwhile, Nyanta was now talking to Fedor.

"Do you have a hearth, nya?" The cat-man asked.

"Oh, right over there." Fedor answered, pointing in a direction.

"Let's go prepare dinner, Nyanta-san." Serara said. Fedor smiled at the two of them before his attention was diverted by the scene going on behind him.

"Give me more!" Naotsugu yelled, holding a bunch of straw that he had picked up.

"This is for my lord/my strategist!" Both Sakura and Akatsuki replied, each of them holding as much straw as they could pick up, which combined was only as about as much as Naotsugu had himself. Kanami, meanwhile, was bouncing around in the remaining straw in the background with a giddy look on her face.

"Your friends are quite lively." Fedor remarked to Shiroe, who was also watching the scene.

"Yeah…" Shiroe answered weakly, holding his hand behind his head. A few minutes later, Fedor and the others (except for Nyanta and Serara, who were cooking dinner) were seated around a table in conversation.

"I see. So you're going to Akihabara." Fedor remarked after listening to them explain their trip.

"Yes." Shiroe replied.

"We People of the Land travel little." Fedor explained.

"If you want to hear tales of our travels, we have plenty!" Naotsugu exclaimed, holding a thumbs up while he did so.

"I'd love to hear them." Fedor responded kindly to Naotsugu's remark. Suddenly, Akatsuki's attention was drawn towards the door of the barn, where two shadowy figures were standing. Shiroe momentarily saw both Minori and Tohya standing there, causing the enchanter to make a surprised noise.

"Don't' just stand there…come in." Fedor remarked to the two figures, who soon revealed themselves as two children, a boy and a girl. "Don't be afraid."

"Hello!" The both the them remarked as they walked in.

"Hello." Shiroe responded.

"You're cute." Naotsugu exclaimed as he looked at the two of them. "Who are you?"

"Mischa!" The girl replied.

"Ivan!" The boy said right afterwards.

"Mischa and Ivan, huh?" Naotsugu said, confirming their names. "Good names!"

Meanwhile, the children's attentions were instantly diverted towards Akatsuki, who was backing up a little in response.

"A ninja?" Mischa asked, sparkling as she did so.

"A ninja!" Ivan confirmed, also sparkling as he looked at Akatsuki. The two of them continued walking Akatsuki backwards (while saying such things as "throw a shuriken!") as the others watched.

"I guess they like her." Fedor remarked, watching the scene.

"They're all kids-" Naotsugu managed to get out before being pinned to the wall by a bunch of thrown shurikens from Akatsuki. Fedor sweatdropped as he watched.

"They are my grandchildren." Fedor said a few minutes later, once they had gotten Naotsugu unpinned and were now sitting around the table once again. "When they were born, it was very difficult."

"Oh, really?" Shiroe said.

"There was a blizzard outside." Fedor explained. "And their father had gone to the town market. I was the only man here, so I carried their mother to the doctor, on the other side of the mountain."

"Come here, grandpa!" Ivan suddenly remarked from the other side of the barn.

"Oh, yes, coming!" Fedor replied, setting down the teapot he was holding onto the table and turning to walk over to the young boy.

"So even NPCs not part of events have that kind of a backstory." Naotsugu remarked to Shiroe once the two of them were left alone at the table. "The more I talk to them, the more human they seem."

"They are human." Shiroe remarked, causing Naotsugu to look at him. "They have names…families, feelings, and memories." The enchanter stood up before continuing: "We adventurers have powerful bodies, and can revive, no matter how often we die." Adjusting his glasses, Shiroe dropped a bombshell with his conclusion: "In this world, wouldn't that make us the abnormal ones?"

Naotsugu stared up at the ceiling for a moment before agreeing: "I guess so."

"They live as one with the land." Shiroe continued. "That's how they get their name."

"Ever since the Apocalypse, it seems like I've seen far more of them…" Naotsugu remarked, leaning against the wall as he did so. "Maybe we just never noticed when it was a game."

"Maybe." Shiroe agreed.

* * *

"Ta-dah!"

Serara proudly showed off the basket full of ingredients that she was holding when she and Nyanta returned as she said: "Look at this!"

"We went around to some neighboring houses, nya." Nyanta explained. "They were nice enough to sell us some food, nya."

"Isn't this great?" Serara asked, excitedly. "Cheese! Sausage!"

"They aren't crafted?" Akatsuki asked, slightly confused. "Then how?"

"No, come to think of it, those are ingredient items." Shiroe said, looking deep in thought as he said so.

"Some strange parts are just like the game…" Naotsugu said, trying to offer an explanation.

"There's butter and eggs!" Serara continued with her talk, proudly displaying the items as she called each of them out by name. "I bought salt in Susukino…so we can make cookies, right, Nyanta-san?"

"Nya." Nyanta confirmed.

"Cookies?" Fedor asked, as he came into the barn holding each of his grandchildren by their hands.

A few minutes later, Serara set a batch of cookies down on the table in front of the People of the Land, the two children immediately smelling the delicious scent wafting off the cookies. They eagerly looked at each other before instantly grabbing and cookie and biting into it, their faces showing happiness after they did so.

"What are these?" Ivan asked as he took another bite. Fedor followed quickly after his grandchildren, looking shocked at the delicious taste as he bit into a cookie himself.

Meanwhile, Kanami noticed Shiro's happy expression while looking at them turn quickly into a half-sad/half-pondering one.

* * *

 _ **Near Akihabara**_

"Hurry up!" the cloaked, staff-wielding man exclaimed at the bunch of children that were struggling to walk through the heavy rain. "We need to get back before the triffids respawn!"

As he continued to watched the children, the man spoke to himself: "Our healer was sent to the cathedral…jeez, why do I have to babysit these guys? My luck sucks."

Meanwhile, one of the kids grabbed onto a girl that was next to him, holding her up from where she was about to collapse.

"You okay?" the samurai asked.

"I'm sorry." The female bard responded. "I just feel kind of lightheaded."

"That guy…" The samurai boy said, looking at the cloaked man in front of them. "Two fo us died today because of that guy!"

"But…" the girl interjected. "I hate to say it, but its' because we're weak."

"My luck sucks." The cloaked man suddenly said as he continued to lead them back towards the city. "We didn't hit the quota today. It's because your levels are too low!"

"No, it's because his level is too high, so we stand out." The samurai replied to the man's remark.

"What do you mean?" the girl asked.

"I don't really understand it." The boy replied, "but he attracts all the enemies. As the tank, drawing their attention is my job. That's why our formation always falls apart."

"Now that you mention it, you're right." The girl replied, thinking back to what the samurai had said.

Suddenly, the samurai looked up at the sky, realization on his face.

"That's it." He said. "That's why he used that teacher system thing."

"Hey, stop talking and walk!" the cloaked man called back towards the three kids.

The samurai grimaced in response.

"Come on, we're almost to Akihabara." He said, the two others nodding and following. "We can do it."

"Yeah."

* * *

The next day, a bunch of kids were lined up once again, being led by the cloaked figure once again.

"Alright, we're all here today." The figure remarked to them. "Let's go. Don't screw up today. Got it?"

The kids slowly followed, before the samurai boy's attention was drawn by something said behind him:

"Serara! I'm so glad you're all right! Thanks, Shiro-bou!"

Turning around to look, the samurai noticed a familiar figure being embraced by a large-breasted woman, while he exclaimed in protest:

"You don't need to thank me, Mari-nee."

The samurai's expression turned into one of shock.

' _That voice…it must be. It's Shiroe-nii-chan!'_

The samurai took a step towards the familiar figure, before being called back by the hooded figure:

"Hey! What are you doing? Come on!"

The samurai slowly turned around, walking back towards the other group of kids and away from Shiroe.

However, unbeknown to him, Shiroe had indeed noticed him there, even while his back was turned. While Henrietta glomped Akatsuki, Marielle patted Serara on the head, Nyanta watching, Kanami and Sakura chatting with one another, and Naotsugu dancing in celebration with the other members of the Crescent Moon Alliance, Shiroe turned slightly to bring the group of kids being led towards the gate of Akihabara by the hooded man into his sight. Turning completely to face in their direction immediately afterwards, the reflection of the sight showed on the enchanter's glasses as he stared after them.

* * *

 **And, chapter completed! That actually was pretty long, much longer than it originally was planned out to be. But hey, I was in the mood once you started writing, you continued writing no matter what. \o/**

 **A quick note: I did indeed skip a scene, where the kids in the Hamelin guild were giving up their XP booster potions simply because, at least for me, it was a little difficult to actually write that scene out properly. Please forgive me for that.**

 **Some people have noticed that I haven't deviated from source material all that much, I do plan on putting original arcs in, but this story will be following source material as much as possible for the sake of continuity and timeline. I did put the start of one in this chapter, and I plan to release more original content in the future, so please stay tuned! ^_^**

 **With that said, please R &R, have a happy end of the school year for all of you who it is applicable to, and please read the next chapter, which I hope will be out sooner than this chapter was!**

 **Next chapter: Ketsui (Resolve)**


	10. Ketsui

**I have no excuses. RIP me.**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own Log Horizon.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Ketsui (Resolve)**

* * *

 _Serara, the girl we saved in Susukino, belongs to Marielle's guild, the Crescent Moon Alliance._

 _A guild is a team comprised of many players. Guilds offer many advantages that parties, which are more provisional, don't have. For example, a shared vault in the game's bank, and a dedicated communication system. And most important, potential use of a guild hall, located at the Guild Building. These halls can be purchased or rented, and are divided into several ranks._

 _Normally, you select a hall based on your guild's size. The Crescent Moon Alliance uses what's known as a rank-B hall, consisting of seven rooms. For them, the size is exactly right._

* * *

"Making the food without using the commands is more difficult, but it's worth it, nyan." Nyanta announced to the group of Crescent Moon Alliance chefs that were cooking food at the cat-man's instructions. As they cooked, one of the chefs took a good smell of the food that was cooking and sighed in pure bliss.

"This smell…this perfectly charred color…I remember this!" The chef remarked, tears flowing freely out of his eyes. "It's food!"

"You're going to make it too salty, nyan." Nyanta remarked without missing a beat.

Just then, there was a failure noise from another part of the room, causing both Nyanta and the other chef to look in that direction.

"I still can't do it!" another male chef said despairingly as he watched the pot he was cooking turn into an unidentifiable blue gloop.

"To make difficult food, you need a high cooking level, nya." Nyanta explained, walking over to where the chef was. "And even if two people with the same level use the same ingredients, the dishes can still taste different, nya. It's no different than in our old world, nya."

Meanwhile, back in the room that the main party was taking place in, a certain young druid girl was running back and forth between different groups of adventurers, carrying food and other items while she did so.

"Serara's working hard." Hein remarked as the assassin watched the girl offer a drink to Eisel nearby.

"Even though the party is for her…"

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the party room, Naotsugu eagerly sunk his teeth into a bunch of meat, eating the whole stick with one large bite.

"Listen, kid." The guardian stated to Shoryu in front of him as he continued chewing on his food. "Your level isn't what's important. It's what comes after that."

"What comes after my level?" Shoryu asked, slightly confused at what Naotsugu was saying. All of a sudden, a thought came to him as he exclaimed, "Secret techniques?!" with stars in his eyes.

Naotsugu shook his head in response.

"I mean panties." The guardian replied, leaning towards the young swashbuckler.

"Pa-" Shoryu was taken aback by the response. At the exact same moment, a certain large-chested Crescent Moon Alliance leader came up behind the swashbuckler.

"What are you talking about?" Marielle asked, causing Shoryu's face to turn into a massively shocked one.

"Nothing much." Naotsugu replied, completely oblivious to Shoryu's face, as he turned to face Marielle. "Just talking about p-"

"Powerful monster! About powerful monsters!" Shoryu covered Naotsugu's mouth as he finished the guardian's sentence.

"Heh…" Marielle replied, not entirely convinced by Shoryu's response. To the swashbuckler's relief, however, Marielle's attention was soon diverted by another voice from behind her.

"Marielle?" Henrietta called out.

"Coming!" Marielle replied loudly, turning around and walking towards the bard's voice, much to Shoryu's relief.

* * *

"Don't tell anyone?" Marielle asked Henrietta once she had walked over to her.

"We shouldn't let our rivals learn about this food for a while." Henrietta replied as she watched the Crescent Moon Alliance's chefs bring out another huge serving of food that they had just prepared.

"Why?" Marielle asked in response, confused by Henrietta's reasoning. "It's a big deal, after all!"  
"It's too big of a deal." Henrietta replied, shaking her head. "If people suddenly find out, it could cause problems. That's what Shiroe-sama said."

Meanwhile, at the exact same moment, Shiroe was currently being thanked by Hein and the female guild member he had been talking to.

"Thank you for your help." The female adventurer said, her voice full of thanks.

"I-it was nothing…" Shiroe replied, a little overwhelmed by all the thanks being sent his way.

"Everyone's honestly grateful!" Hein added to his guildmember's remark. "Let's have a toast!" the assassin continued, holding his glass out at the same time. The three of them clinked drink glasses, Shiroe feeling embarrassed while doing so.

* * *

If one could see the epitome of despair/annoyance, it was in the faces of the two youngest members of Shiroe's party at the current moment.

"I'm so happy!" Henrietta exclaimed loudly as sparkles appeared around her face, causing the two young girls in front of her to both massively sweatdrop in response. "Not just Ashlin, but Akatsuki and Sakura too!"

Both girls backed up into a nearby table in response to Henrietta's actions.

"Wh-what are you going to do?" Akatsuki asked nervously.

"Ashlin." Henrietta said in response, adjusting her glasses so they twinkled.

"Hai!" The young girl replied loudly, dragging a clothing stand with her to right in front of the two terrified girls. "Today, we have three types of summer dress for you."

"I-I am my lord's personal ninja!" Akatsuki replied, shielding her eyes from the shine that the three summer dresses were emitting in front of her. "I couldn't wear such frivolous things!"

Sakura, meanwhile, didn't say anything and instead just made a bolt for the door. Henrietta, in response, threw her instrument at the gunner, hitting her square in the back of the head and knocking the poor girl out. After seeing that Sakura wasn't going anywhere at the moment, Henrietta then turned her attention back to Akatsuki.

"Shiroe-sama's given his permission~" Henrietta said in a singing voice as she slowly approached the assassin. "Now, just give up…"

Akatsuki was completely trembling in both anger and fear as Henrietta's shadow spread out more and more on her face as the bard approached.

"Y-you sold me out, my lord. My lord, YOU SOLD ME OUT!"

* * *

A few hours later, as night was beginning to fall over the city, Marielle moved between the now-empty tables of the party room, trying her best to silently move between the sleeping Crescent Moon Alliance members that were scattered over the place. One or two of them snored as Marielle passed, but other than that, everyone was exhausted from the party that had just taken place.

"Marie-san…I…" Shoryu mumbled to himself in his sleep from his position on the floor. Marielle smiled at the boy as she placed a sheet on top of him. Behind her, Shiroe smiled as he came to a stop from where he was helping to clean up all the dirty dishes that were still scattered around all the tables.

"We'll have a lot of cleaning tomorrow." Marielle remarked, keeping her eyes on the sleeping face of Shoryu as she did so. Turning to face Shiroe now, she asked: "Shiro-bou, are you going to sleep too?"

"I'm not that tired." Shiroe replied. Marielle smiled at his response.

"Then shall I make some tea?" the cleric offered.

* * *

A few minutes later, after Shiroe had accepted Marielle's offer, the two of them found themselves seated beside each other in Marielle's work room; two cups of tea placed on the table in front of the two.

"You really helped us this time." Marielle stated, opening up the conversation. "Thank you."

"It's fine, really." Shiroe replied humbly, waving off Marielle's praise once again. "I didn't do anything too big."

"If it wasn't big, then what would be?" Marielle asked in response to Shiroe's humbleness.

"While I was away," Shiroe continued quickly, trying to change the subject, "what's happened here?"

"Here? You mean in Akihabara?" Marielle asked for confirmation. She made a depressed face and looked away from Shiroe before continuing: "I think it's better than it was. There is far less PKing, and it's a little safer. But…I couldn't say exactly why, but there's something unpleasant in the air."

Shiroe remained silent as Marielle continued her explanation.

"It's like, well…like everyone has fallen into ranks."

"Ranks?" Shiroe asked.

"We're a small guild, with fewer than thirty members, right?" Marielle asked in response. "We have four level 90s, while most are under 50. But the biggest guilds…for example, have you heard of D.D.D., Crusty's guild?"

"The raid guild that beat Oracle's Tower, right?" Shiroe asked. "The Legion raid that they said the Japanese couldn't have beaten…"

"Yeah." Marielle confirmed. "A raid like that can have hundred-player fights. Supposedly, they have over 1,500 members, including plenty of level 90s."

"Then by "rank," you meant the guilds?" Shiroe asked, starting to see what Marielle had meant earlier.

"It's feeling as though the bigger guilds are determining the town's feel and its rules. For example, who has priority using the market."

"I had no idea."

"It's the same way with the hunting grounds. Since the strong and weak guilds were divided, the weak guilds will no longer approach the stronger guilds' territories."

"Then the larger guilds have taken all the good hunting spots?"

"You can't fight in the town, of course. But that doesn't mean you can clash in the hunting areas." Marielle continued. "Well, it means there's less PKing, which is good."

"But that's still…" Shiroe started. His face hardened as he continued his sentence: "Somehow, I don't like it."

"I understand what you mean." Marielle said after Shiroe's statement. "It isn't just the hunting grounds. Invisible barriers are being erected everywhere. I think that's what they mean by the guilds falling into ranks. No one's to blame. And I'm sure the large guilds have their own problems. No laws or ethics prohibit people from using whatever strategy they can to give themselves an edge in this world."

Shiroe's hands gripped his upper arms tightly as he took in what Marielle said.

"But still…" the enchanter said, "It isn't a good thing."

There was a moment's silence between the two of them before Shiroe continued:

"Though perhaps it's a matter of preference."

"That's true." Marielle agreed. "Actually, a few days ago, we tried to form a council of smaller guilds in order to oppose the growing influence of the larger guilds. Unfortunately, all the smaller guilds have their own opinions and mindsets, and the conference didn't work out as planned. Furthermore, the Black Sword Knights and the Silver Sword are aiming for 91."

"91?" Asked Shiroe.

"The old level cap was 90, but with the expansion…"

"Yeah…" Shiroe replied, seeing what Marielle was saying. "With the Novasphere Pioneers expansion, the level cap was raised to 100, wasn't it?"

"And since no new players have entered since the Apocalypse…" Marielle implied.

"Oh, I see…" Shiroe replied. "Because of the limit on how many you can allow to join…"

"The Black Sword Knights have always had a thing about being the best." Marielle said. "Their guild master, Issac, is proud…or maybe just enjoys excluding others…he won't allow anyone below 85 to join. So he isn't in the position D.D.D. was, where he can just start absorbing a bunch of smaller guilds."

"He's trying to fight quantity with quality, then?" Shiroe asked. Marielle took another bite out of the cookie she had started to eat before nodding her head in response.

"At a bare minimum, they'd need to hunt for level-85 monsters."

"But this isn't the same as the game…" Shiroe said. "Isn't that pretty dangerous?"

"It would be if they did it the normal way." Marielle said, her voice implying something dark was to come shortly. True to the feeling her next words confirmed it: "They're using EXP pots."

"EXP pots?" Shiroe asked. "Do you mean they're leveling up by cheating?"

* * *

 _EXP pots…items that slightly increase attack power and health regeneration, and doubles experience earned from combat. One of these potions was freely distributed to every player below level 30 once a day, so new players could level up and start enjoying the game more quickly._

* * *

"After the Apocalypse," Marielle answered Shiroe, "a guild called Hamelin gathered new players, claiming they wanted to help them. But instead, they're selling their EXP pots to large guilds that want to raise their levels."

Shiroe didn't reply to Marielle's comment, but one look at his face could tell he had an extremely dark look on his face from the revelation.

* * *

At the same time, outside of the guild building, a solitary figure was standing there all alone, looking up at the building itself silently. The figure sighed to herself softly before turning around and heading back down the dark and deserted main street.

* * *

A little while later, Shiroe was walking down the same main street by himself, deeply thinking about everything that was going on currently within Akiba.

' _It's all stating to go wrong.'_ The enchanter thought to himself as he walked. _'This town…this world…who's at fault?_

 _No, to a greater or lesser degree, everyone is. Including me, since I'm not doing anything.'_

Shiroe continued to walk down the dark road, noting the small campfires every here and there that were illuminating adventurers that were still awake at this time of night.

' _That's right…I only went to Susukino to vent some of my frustration at the way things are going.'_

"Thinking again?"

The sudden voice startled Shiroe, causing him to turn around to look at the source of the voice.

"There's nothing wrong with thinking. But Shiro-kun's smart enough, so why not just solve the problem?"

Shiroe blinked. Standing in front of him, bathed in a radiant white light that was radiating from behind her, was Kanami, dressed in her previous swashbuckler clothing that she had worn during the time of the Debauchery Tea Party. The sight made Shiroe stop for a moment, before turning back and walking onwards down the dark street once again.

' _But what can I do?'_

"Shiro-kun."

' _I don't even have a guild…'_

"Shiro-kun~!"

' _I don't have a guild…is it?'_

"That's just an excuse for running away…" Shiroe muttered to himself.

"SHIRO-KUN!"

A hard object made contact with the back of the distracted enchanter's head, sending him sprawling to the ground.

* * *

Meanwhile, within Hamlin's guild hall, a bunch of the younger and newer players that Hamelin was taking advantage of were sprawled out throughout a storage room, lying on the hard floor with only a single blanket and pillow and trying to get to sleep.

"Can't sleep?" one of the girls, Izuzu, asked the other girl beside her that was currently still awake.

"No." Minori replied simply to Izuzu's question.

"Yeah, I'm too tired to sleep." Izuzu replied, turning away from Minori and looking at the ceiling. "Your brother helped me out yesterday."

"Tohya did?" Minori asked.

"He's a good guy." Izuzu replied. "Kind, cheerful, and hard-working."

"He's just empty-headed." Minori sharply rebuked, but the happiness in her voice gave away her true intentions.

"You two seem to really get along." Izuzu remarked. "When this world was still a game, you two would form a party and adventure together, right?"

"…yeah." Minori replied, her voice much sadder at Izuzu's remark about 'when this world was still a game.' "Tohya…Tohya wanted to play."

* * *

"Shiro-kun! Don't die!" Shiro-kun!"

Shiroe was suddenly forcefully awoken from his (forced) unconsciousness by the very same person who had caused him to fall unconscious in the first place shaking him by his shoulders. Opening his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with Kanami once again, this one lacking the shining light behind her and the swashbuckler clothes that he had seen just a few moments previously.

"Kanami…san?" Shiroe asked slowly.

"Thank goodness!" Kanami exclaimed as she lifted Shiroe to his feet. "I thought you had died!"

"Then you should have simply needed to go to the cathedral." Shiroe replied, rubbing the back of his head. Off to the side, he noticed a large rock that was definitely not there before, but Shiroe decided not to ask anything about it.

"…are you thinking too hard again?" Kanami asked suddenly after Shiroe had turned to continue on his walks, Kanami following closely behind him. "…is it about guilds as well?"

Shiroe turned to look at her, a confused look passing on his face for a moment as he did so.

"It isn't that hard to guess what you're thinking about, Shiro-kun." Kanami said cheerfully. "It's written all over your face plain as day."

Shiroe was going to ask the meaning behind Kanami's words, but ignored it and instead turned to continue walking down the road.

"All the old guilds that invited me just wanted to take advantage of my status as a veteran player." Shiroe said as the two of them continued walking. "I hated it, and that's why…no, if I had to say, it wasn't all that bad, having people rely on me."

As the two of them walked, they passed by a group of three adventurers that were sitting alongside the side of the dark road. One of them remarked, just loud enough to hear: "I wish our guild master had a better grasp of things."  
"Our guild's done for…" another one complained.

Shiroe walked in silence past the group for a bit before continuing with what he was saying:

"But when a lot of people get together, lip service isn't enough to get by anymore. And I hated that."

Shiroe paused for a moment while making a turn into one of Akiba's side alleys, Kanami following his lead behind him.

"No…if I had to be honest, I knew all that going in…" Shiroe confessed. Kanami put her finger on her lips, her face having completely unchanged from her normal cheerful and joyous one.

"Do you still not like guilds, Shiro-kun?" Kanami suddenly asked after a moment. Shiroe stopped in his tracks and turned quickly to face the monk, who was smiling warmly at him.

"…To be honest, I don't really know anymore." Shiroe admitted, defeated by Kanami's carefree attitude. He turned and continued walking down the alley, eventually ending up on top of one of the walls surrounding Akiba, looking down into the city. Sitting down on a nearby rock, he continued: "The more I think about why I didn't like guilds, the more haughty and childish I seem."

"But that's just you, Shiro-kun." Kanami said, causing Shiroe to look at her. "It's true that the system itself makes it easy for guilds to go rotten, so I can understand why you'd want to keep your distance from that. But if there was a thing that never went bad, I don't know that it's be very fun at all."

"Kanami-san…" Shiroe remarked quietly, looking at the monk while doing so.

"Any kind of life can go wrong, or sicken, or suffer." Kanami continued with her completely out-of-character philosophical speech. "Lives get old, decay, and finally die. That is just the nature of human life within itself. Disliking that fact because it hurts isn't any different than disliking life itself."

Shiroe just continued looking at Kanami silently, taking in every word that the normally hyperactive monk was saying.

"I know you realize this, Shiro-kun." Kanami was continuing while looking up at the stars in the night sky. "You are my bus guide, after all. After all, our old home, the Tea Party, was an exciting place!" Kanami skipped back and forth between both of her feet, starting to revert back to her normal happy-go-lucky attitude. "Nyan-kun, Tsugu-kun, KR-kun, Soji-kun…every day was a whole new day of fun and adventures that made every day within the game fun for everyone. But the reason that was went beyond just ourselves; it also was because everyone with us worked hard to make it that way. Any treasure you attain without anyone ever working is no treasure at all, after all!"

Shiroe closed his eyes for a moment before turning his attention back up to the stars above, thinking heavily about what Kanami had just said.

' _She's right.'_ The enchanter thought to himself. _'The Tea Party and the Crescent Moon Alliance…in both, there was someone hard at work behind the scenes…'_

"…Kanami-san, what should I do?" Shiroe suddenly asked, startling Kanami for a moment and causing the monk to look back at him.

"The most amazing thing that you can, as my bus guide!" Kanami exclaimed, lifting both her arms into the air in an excited motion. The next moment, Kanami had put a finger on her mouth once again and transitioned back into a deeply thinking standing posture. "If I had to be honest, Shiro-kun, you hold back too often as my bus guide."

'… _bus guide…'_ Shiroe thought to himself, sweatdropping at how many times Kanami had interjected the phrase into the conversation. Then, he sat back, a moment from the past coming back to him because of Kanami's words.

* * *

" _I don't think you need to feel so bound by duty all the time. I mean, there's no need to hold back!"_

* * *

Shiroe's eyes widened at what he was starting to realize. At the same moment, Kanami spoke up once again:

"You know, I spoke with Sora-chan while you were cleaning up the party." The monk suddenly announced, causing Shiroe to look at her. "She actually thinks very highly of you, you know."

* * *

"… _my strategist works too hard." Sakura remarked as both she and Kanami stood outside the guild building, looking back up at the window 'supposedly' where the Crescent Moon Alliance was housed._

" _Hm? Shiro-kun?" Kanami asked, looking at the young girl. "He is my bus guide after all!" the monk continued, laughing at her own statement. Sakura shared a chuckle as well._

"… _I wish he would not hold back when it comes to himself anymore." Sakura said after a moment's silence, causing Kanami to look at the young girl once again. Seeing the look on Sakura's face, Kanami spoke:_

" _Hey, Sora-chan."_

" _Hm? What's up, Kanami-san?"_

"… _are you really not able to join any guilds?" Kanami asked bluntly. Sakura turned away from Kanami's stare and looked back up at the guild building once more._

"… _it is true. It is listed in the rules for myself and the other supertesters because of favoritism and NDA requirements." Sakura answered honestly. She paused for a moment, before adding more: "But as far as I know, it's only an unwritten rule that isn't set in stone, after all."_

 _Kanami stared at the young girl hard, starting to see what Sakura was actually saying. The gunner turned back and smiled at the monk._

" _After all, if there's anything my strategist and my leader taught me, rules were made to be broken, weren't they?"_

* * *

Shiroe's eyes widened once again as Kanami finished her flashback to earlier that night.

"…I've kept you waiting?"

"That's right, Shiro-kun!" Kanami pouted. "You're such a blockhead sometimes!"

"…Both of you were waiting for me?" Shiroe continued, ignoring Kanami's hurled insult.

"Of course!"

"…And Naotsugu and Chief as well?"

"That's right."

"Instead of going elsewhere, you stayed with me?"

"Of course! You are my bus guide, after all, and where the most fun happens!"

Shiroe gave a sniff, trying to hold back tears, as Kanami looked at him warmly and smiled.

* * *

A little while later, back in Hamelin's guild hall, one young girl was still awake, even this late into the night and with the prospect of another hard 'training' day in front of her. All of a sudden, her status menu gave a notification sound, causing her to sit up straight and look around to see if she had woken up anyone else.

' _Oh, a message…'_ Minori thought to herself as she browsed through her menu. All of a sudden, the young girl have a start of surprise as she looked at who was calling her:

Shiroe.

Level 90, enchanter.

" _Um, hello."_ An all-too-familiar voice spoke after the call had connected. _"Do you remember me? It's Shiroe."_

Minori fought to keep tears from flowing down her face as Shiroe's voice continued: _"This is Minori, right?"_

"Yes." The young girl timidly said back.

" _Listen carefully, Minori."_ Shiroe's voice instructed. _"Cough softly once for yes; twice for no. Three times if you want to say something. Alright?"_

' _Shiroe-san knows what's happening to us now…'_ Minori thought to herself, before coughing once, softly.

" _You're both in Hamelin, right?"_

Another soft cough.

" _And you're giving your EXP pots to Hamelin?"_

Minori paused for a moment before letting out another soft cough.

" _Are you okay?"_

Minori's eyes opened wide at Shiroe's question, tears beginning to well up once again.

" _Are you okay?"_ Shiroe's voice asked once again.

Minori coughed. Once.

" _Really?"_ Shiroe's voice came once again, obviously not convinced by the young girl's answer.

Minori paused for a longer time this time, before coughing once, choking, and coughing twice.

" _You want to say something?"_ Shiroe's voice asked. Minori realized that because of her pause, she had actually coughed three times. Minori shook her head back and forth, tears in her eyes, although Shiroe obviously couldn't see it.

" _I did tell you to cough three times if you had something to say. Alright, I'll hurry so I can hear it. For now, I'll believe that you're okay. So believe in me too, alright? I'll come rescue you. Got it?"_

This time, Minori wasn't able to stop the tears flowing down her face.

* * *

The next day, Shiroe made his way back to the big tree where he had originally met the other members of his group at the start of the apocalypse.

"Oh, Shiro!" Naotsugu called out as the enchanter made his way closer. Besides the sitting Naotsugu, Akatsuki was standing off to the side, while Nyanta and Sakura were both leaning against the tree. Kanami, true to expectations, was actually hanging _off_ the tree via one of the vines on the trunk.

"My lord, don't worry me." Akatsuki remarked from her position. "If you're leaving, say something."

"That's right." Sakura added haughtily.

"Wha-"Shiroe started at their reactions, before simply smiling in response.

' _That's right.'_ Shiroe thought to himself as he looked around at all the smiling faces in front of him. _'These five have been waiting for my words, after all.'_

* * *

"Eh?"

Marielle blinked twice in confusion at the situation that was unfolding in front of her. On one side of the table, she and Henrietta were sitting, with Shoryu and Eisel standing behind them. On the other, Shiroe was sitting on a stool, facing the two of them, with Kanami standing quite impatiently behind him and Sakura leaning against the wall next to the door.

"This time, I'd like your help with something." Shiroe said, his glasses giving off a glint that something was about to come as he did so.

"Our help?" Henrietta asked, looking at Marielle.

"Anything you need, Shiroe-san!" Shoryu remarked loudly from his position, bumping his hand across his chest in affirmation.

"Eh? Ah, that's right." Henrietta said, following up on Shoryu's statement. "The Crescent Moon Alliance owes you much, after all."

"Well?" Shoryu said, prompting Shiroe to go on.

"Some twins I know are being held captive…" Shiroe explained. "Or rather, are being forced to stay in a nasty guild. To put it bluntly, I'd like to save them."

"I see." Shoryu said. "So you just need them to quit the guild, right? We could draw them off…"

"Um…" Henrietta suddenly spoke up. "This guild you're talking about…"

"This guild supposedly gathers new players and takes their EXP pots." Shiroe continued on from Henrietta's statement, confirming the bard's suspicions.

"Hamelin." Marielle confirmed, her face hardening into a serious one. Beside her, Marielle's face had turned the same way.

"I think it's time they left." Shiroe continued on. There was silence for a little while after Shiroe's statement, nobody wanting to say anything to break it.

"W-wait a second…" Shoryu suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence. "Do you mean you'll destroy them?"

"No, I mean exactly what I said." Shiroe said, his tone deadly serious. Shoryu took a step back in fright as Shiroe adjusted his glasses upwards, causing a glint on them. "I'm going to have them leave Akihabara."

Marielle and Henrietta exchanged looks at Shiroe's words.

"Shiro-bou." Marielle said. "I understand how you feel, but we…"

"I'm sorry, but please let me finish." Shiroe interjected, cutting Marielle off. "This is only the first part, after all. Hamelin's just a small portion of this, after all."

In front of him, all the Crescent Moon Alliance members present gave looks of surprise.

"To be honest, I don't' really like the way Akihabara feels right now." Shiroe said, looking at his clenched hands as he did so. "It's petty, pathetic, and cheap. That's why, I'm going to clean the place up."

Once again, the present Crescent Moon Alliance members gave sounds of surprise.

"Akihabara is our hometown." Shiroe continued. "It's the largest city on the Japanese server. And it's sad, unpleasant, frail. Everyone walks with their heads down…it's as if our only purpose in life were to be pathetic. We number thirty thousand, after all. But that also means there are only thirty thousand of us. I think everyone's been underestimating this world far too much. We aren't nearly desperate enough."

A long silence permeated the air as Shiroe stood up after his statement.

"We…" Marielle started after a few seconds.

Shiroe, in response, simply bowed respectfully in her direction.

"Please help me." The enchanter said.

"Shiro-bou…" Marielle said.

"Guild master," Shoryu piped up in an unusual (for him) respectful tone, causing everyone to look at him. "Could we at least hear him out? For a long time, I've been feeling the same way as Shiroe-san."

"Shoryu…" Marielle gently spoke, looking at the boy.

Henrietta, in the meanwhile, was looking back at Shiroe.

"How would you do it?" The bard asked. "It's depends on your plan. Tell us. And we'll decide if it's something we can help you with."

Shiroe sat back down on the seat before replying.

"I need money." The enchanter said, bluntly. "For now, five million gold will suffice."

The looks on everyone's faces in the room could be described as comedy gold after Shiroe made his request. Even on his side of the room, Kanami and Sakura both had shocked looks, as both of them hadn't been briefed on Shiroe's plan yet, before both of them burst out laughing at how very Shiroe-esque that Shiroe's plan was.

"F-Five million…" Shoryu slowly stated, his whole body trembling. "M-money?"

"That's insane!" Henrietta exclaimed, as Marielle had not recovered from her shock yet. "Our treasure only has sixty thousand. Even if we included all our members' belongings…"

"What would you use all that money for?" Marielle asked after Henrietta's outburst.

Shiroe adjusted his glasses once again, an evil look on his face.

"The money isn't that important." The enchanter confessed. "It's only the start. The real problem comes after. After all, I need everyone's hope and goodwill. I believe that more people like this town than hate it, in the end. The more people who want to save it, the more likely it is that we can win. So I'll say it again. Lend your assistance to me." Shiroe bowed once again, this time from a seated position. "To me…and to my guild."

Marielle and Henrietta exchanged glances once again before Marielle realized what Shiroe had said in his final statement.

"Shiro-bou, did you just say 'guild?'" The cleric asked. "My guild?"

"Yes." Shiroe answered her with a warm smile on his face.

"Then you made one?" Marielle asked, this time with the other Crescent Moon Alliance members beginning to smile as well.

"Yes." Shiroe answered once again. "I'm sorry, since you've invited me."

"No, it's nothing to apologize for…" Marielle said, wiping tears of joy and relief off her face. "I see. Shiro-bou, congratulations. So you managed to make one…you made a home…"

Marielle gave a loud sniff as Shiroe and Henrietta both chuckled.

"Shiroe-san, what is your guild called?" Shoryu suddenly asked from his position.

"Eh?"

"What's the guild's name?"

"Ah, right…" Shiroe said, realizing what Shoryu was asking. "Its name is…"

* * *

Later that day, as the sun was setting, six figures were standing on top of a cliff overlooking the sea near Akihabara. In the front stood a familiar enchanter, standing side-by-side with a certain monk, and in front of four other familiar figures, including a gunner, guardian, assassin, and swashbuckler. As the group stood there, the enchanter raised his staff and declared the new guild's name to the setting sun:

* * *

"It's name…is Log Horizon."

* * *

 **Done! Let's hope I never have that long of a break in between chapters again. Curse my laziness and motivation!**

 **Also, I'm dealing with a double-clicking mouse (it's dying, RIP four years of good service :( ) So I have to go look for another one as well.**

 **With that said, please R &R and please enjoy this chapter!**

 **Next Chapter: Kuresento Mun (Crescent Moon)**


	11. Kuresento Mun

**I hate courses with regards to free time.**

 **With that said, here's the next chapter of What If? We've reached chapter 10, hooray! *Starts throwing confetti everywhere***

 **Please R &R and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Log Horizon.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Kuresento Mun (Crescent Moon)**

* * *

 _This world has one type of currency: gold._

 _The standard cost for the items in a single meal is around five gold._

 _A night at a cheap inn is ten gold._

 _In other words, Thirty-five gold a day will suffice to supply life's basic needs. A player can easily earn that much by defeating six goblins._

 _In addition, adventurers can put money and items in the guild building's bank to keep them from being stolen by others. Of course, with a system like this, any one person's account has limited space within their bank vault itself._

* * *

 _ **Minutes previously**_

"In short," Shiroe was saying to the two leaders of the Crescent Moon Alliance who were sitting across the table from him, "I need money. For now, five million gold will suffice."

"That's insane!" Henrietta exclaimed as Marielle was shocked into not being able to even answer Shiroe. "Our treasury only has sixty thousand. Even if we included all our members' belongings..."

"What would you use all that money for?" Marielle spoke up timidly, still a bit in shock from what Shiroe had said.

Shiroe's only response was to adjust his glasses, a smirk on his face.

* * *

 **Later that day; Imperial Garden Forest**

"It's pretty tough to catch them alive…" Shoryu remarked from where he stood back-to-back with Hein and Naotsugu, facing outward at the large amount of low-level boars that were surrounding them.

"If you kill them, they just become ingredient items." Naotsugu reminded the boy, readying his shield at the same time.

Meanwhile, behind the both of them, Hien was glaring at the giant boar in front of him with a disbelieving look on his face.

"It's impossible…" The assassin said mostly to himself. "That huge boar becomes a mere two kilograms of meat!"

"But with a good cook, if you catch them alive, you can use the entire thing." Naotsugu recited the explanation that was given to him previously. "So it'll all be worth it in the end."

At that moment, by pure coincidence, the wild boars around the group immediately started charging for the adventurers, who all readied up for combat.

"Okay, let's do this!" Naotsugu exclaimed. Hitting his shield with his sword to taunt the enemies surrounding them, Naotsugu continued: "Our quota for today is sixty!"

"Okay!" Hein answered, the assassin taking up position in a nearby tree. In front of him (but on the ground), Shoryu was also taking up position to take on the incoming monsters.

"If it's for Marie-san, I'll catch as many as you need!" the swashbuckler yelled as both he and Hein jumped into the mass of boars surrounding Naotsugu.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the same time back in the Crescent Moon Alliance Guild Hall, preparations were going at full force for Shiroe's plan of attack.

In one section of the hall, Eisel was busy overwatching a group of guild members who were manually cutting up logs into wooden planks for later use.

In another room, a group of three young girls were currently analyzing a set of maid costumes that they had tried on.

"That isn't quite right." One of them said as she watched Ashlynn move around in her own (smaller) maid uniform.

"Something easier to move in would be nice." Ashlynn agreed with the first girl's thoughts, continuing to shift around in her uniform, trying to see if there was any ways to get it to feel more comfortable.

"Let's see what other clothes we have in the bank!" The first girl exclaimed after Ashlynn's remark.

"Hai!" The young girl replied as she held up her hand in an affirmative response.

At the same time in the guild hall's kitchen, the two Crescent Moon Alliance Chefs, Girov and Second, were busy presenting to Nyanta samples of the sauces that they were preparing.

"Please taste this!" Girov, the head chef, exclaimed as he held out a small dish of the latest sauces that he and his brother had prepared.

"Let's see here, nya…" Nyanta said, taking the dish from Girov and taking a sip. After sampling it, Nyanta returned the dish to Girov and gave some constructive criticism: "It needs a little salt, nyan. In addition, it also would work well to add coriander as a secret ingredient, nya."

"Hai! Thank you very much!" Girov exclaimed, taking the used dish and rushing back to the next batch of sauces that the two brothers were creating.

In a corner of the room, watching the entire proceedings in a not-so-subtle-or-cliché hiding place behind a wooden barrel, Serara was currently completely love-struck by the sight of Nyanta in a working environment.

"Nyanta-san is so wonderful…" The girl muttered to herself as she continued to watch.

* * *

Finally, in the guild master's office of the Crescent Moon Alliance, Marielle, as the guild leader, was hard at work signing lots of paperwork and forms that needed to be done in preparation for Shiroe's plan with no qualms whatsoever.

Or at least that was what the scene was supposed to be in theory.

In actuality, the sight of the room in its current state was quite pitiful, to put it bluntly. There was a form resembling a human slumped over onto the desk, but whenether said person was alive or not remained to be seen. The dark aura surrounding Marielle, complete with flies buzzing around and the hastily scribbled will on a corner of the paper in front of her didn't help the situation at all.

"I haven't left the room for three days…" Marielle complained to herself, not moving from the pretty-much-dead position that her body had slumped into. All around her on the desk, mounds and mounds of yet-to-be-finished paperwork loomed ominously, causing Marielle to shrink further into her depressed state. Pushing herself up and attempting to finish the form that she currently was on, Marielle continued: "I can't take this anymore…"

 _ **Thunk**_

Marielle quickly looked to the left at the source of the noise-

-only to be dismayed when the source of the sound turned out to be Henrietta plunking down yet another large amount of documents and forms on the desk for Marielle to get to.

"We need these register for our plan." Henrietta said simply, her glasses and face giving off an (to Marielle at least) evil aura reminiscence of the Villain in Glasses. "Please look through and approve them as fast as possible, guild master."

"Wait, it's impossible…that's impossible!" Marielle exclaimed.

"It is, indeed." Henrietta surprisingly concurred.

"You know paperwork isn't really my thing…" Marielle continued her complaints, chewing on the end of her quill ink pen as she did so.

"Approving budgets is your job, _guild master_." Henrietta replied bluntly, accentuating the usage of Marielle's formal title.

Marielle finally couldn't stand it anymore and exploded.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" The big-boobed guild leader yelled at Henrietta as she exploded upwards from the chair she was sitting on. "Stupid Umeko!"

That last remark caught Henrietta's attention fully, and not in a good way.

"Don't use my real name!" Henrietta yelled back at Marielle. Marielle, of course, ignored her.

"Umeko! Umeko! Umeko!" The guild leader continued shouting, causing Henrietta to bit violently on a random piece of cloth that she had somehow procured from nowhere. The comedic argument would have continued further, if both ladies weren't distracted by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Look at the source of the noise, both Henrietta and Marielle found that in the heat of the yelling match, Shiroe had returned to the room carrying two more heavy loads of paperwork.

"I've brought more, Mari-nee." Shiroe said simply.

"…Shiro-bou, you're a demon." Was all Marielle could respond with.

"Shiroe-sama." Henrietta said, as the enchanter approached the desk that the two of them were around. "I've compiled a list of everything you requested."

"That was fast." Shiroe replied, taking the clipboard that Henrietta was offering him. Looking through the papers on the clipboard, Shiroe nodded approvingly. "And it looks like all the numbers are accurate, too."

Meanwhile, the currently-ignored Marielle slumped back over her desk in a mix of complete and utter defeat/exhaustion/despair.

"Our treasurer is amazing." Marielle said, obviously referring to Henrietta. "The devil himself would run if he saw her coming with a stack of budgets."

"No, there are limits to my abilities." Henrietta replied, ignoring the last part of Marielle's statement. "What instead amazes me is the mercilessness of Shiroe-sama's plans. He should just call himself Mr. Super Villian in Glasses at this rate."

"Compared to Mari-nee's spaciness, my villainy is nothing." Shiroe humbly replied to Henrietta's "praise," following along with the flow of conversation.

"That's true!" Henrietta replied enthusiastically. Marielle, meanwhile, could swear she saw both of their glasses giving off evil glints and black auras emitting from both of their persons.

"I give up…" Marielle said resignedly as Henrietta and Shiroe laughed in an evil way.

"Anyways, there's so much work," Henrietta abruptly said, her hand going to her heart and causing Shiroe to look at her with how abrupt the change was. "having Akatsuki-chan and Sakura-chan for a full day is the only way I can keep going."

"They are both on separate missions right now, but they could probably spare a bit of their time." Shiroe replied to Henrietta's statement.

"Oh my!" Henrietta said as she turned around, emitting a pink aura around her happily.

* * *

A certain gunner shuddered as she was swiftly moving between rooftops near the outskirts of the city.

"Did we even implement colds in the last patch…?"

* * *

A certain assassin felt a shudder run down her entire body from her position in the shadows of an upper floor of a ruined building.

"Is catching a cold even possible in this world?" Akatsuki asked herself. Her attention was immediately drawn back to the scene in front of her, however, after one of the two adventurers involved started talking.

"Here's the money for this week." One of them was saying as he handed what looked to be a quite heavy bag to the other member of the transaction, who was wearing a plumed hat and had a red handkerchief covering the lower half of his face. "This is a great way to earn money."

"Thank you." The adventurer receiving the money said, after the bag had switched hands. "Tell Isaac-san hello for me."

"Hey, I heard you started dealing in leather-working, too." The first adventurer suddenly spoke up.

"We're open twenty-four hours a day, and can repair things quickly." The second adventurer answered in a business-like fashion. However, the current topic of conversation was of no interest to Akatsuki.

What was, however, was the crate of very familiar-looking potions that was the subject of the current transaction.

* * *

At the same time, back in the Crescent Moon Alliance's guild hall, Nyanta was approvingly looking at all the monsters that Naotsugu, Hein, and Shoryuu had managed to bring back from their hunt that morning.

"Well now…this is quite a haul, nyan." The cat-man remarked as he nodded his head.

"Now it's up to you, chief!" Naotsugu exclaimed after Nyanta had finished his statement. Just then, a loud, female voice from behind the four of them drew the attention of three (Nyanta didn't turn around and was continually staring at the soon-to-be foodstuff in front of him):

"Naotsugu! Thank you!" Marielle exclaimed loudly as she threw herself full-force at Naotsugu, causing the guardian to crash into the wall and leave a huge dent where he impacted.

"Rub, rub, rub, rub!" Marielle continued to say happily as she rubbed her face up and down a slightly disturbed Naotsugu's, who was attempting to get the cleric off of him ("Hey! Don't cling to me!").

Watching the scene, Henrietta (who had come into the room at the same time as Marielle) adjusted her glasses, causing a twinkle to come off of them.

"Marie, behave yourself." The bard admonished the guild leader. At the same time, behind her, Hein was busy nudging a very jealous-looking Shoryuu in the side with his elbow.

After finishing with Naotsugu, Henrietta turned around and focused her attention on the two other members of the hunting group.

"Shoryu, Hien, thank you both as well!" Marielle said enthusiastically.

"This guy was all fired up during the hunt." Hein said, looking at his companion with the full intention of teasing him. The tease worked, as Shoryu started yelling back at the wolfish assassin.

"No, you're just good at slacking off!"

"Who's slacking off?" Hein retorted. "You loyal little puppy!"

"Shut up, you flippant fox!"

The two were glaring dagger at each other (and if one looked closely, emitting auras that looked like a wolf and a fox, respectively), oblivious to the fact that Henrietta had turned her attention away from the two of them.

"But there still isn't enough." The Crescent Moon Alliance guild master suddenly said, causing the two boys to stop arguing and look at her.

"I'm on it!" Shoryu immediately replied, clenching both of his fists eagerly.

In the hallway, the same three girls that had been trying on maid costumes earlier watched as a figure burst out of a door and ran down the hall at breakneck speed.

"I don't know why, but he's really into this…" Marielle stated as she watched Shoryu go from her position at the open door. "I can always count on you, Shoryu!"

Behind her, back inside the room, the Henrietta, Nyanta, and Hein all gave good-natured chuckles at Shoryu's obviousness and Marielle's obliviousness.

* * *

"NO MORE!"

The scene within the guild master's room after the sun had gone down was even more chaotic than it was before. Piles upon piles of paperwork not only lined the desk, but was also covering the floor surrounding the desk as well as the person sitting at the desk…supposedly.

"This is all the paperwork." Henrietta said simply, not paying any attention to Marielle's plight. "Then, I'll return to my own job." With that, Henrietta turned around and walked out of the room, leaving Marielle to her own devices.

After she left, Marielle just managed to poke her head out of the piles of papers that she was buried under.

"Now I'm scared of glasses." The cleric said to herself. "The glasses all frighten me!"

* * *

"Ta-dah!"

With a flourish, two junior members of the Crescent Moon alliance presented the finished sign that they had been working on all day to the four people standing in front of them.

"It looks wonderful!" Henrietta exclaimed.

"It's amazing how nice handmade stuff looks." Ashlynn added.

"Now we're almost done." Asuka added.

As she adjusted her glasses Henrietta had a thought:

' _It's finally time.'_

* * *

 _ **Flashback**_

" _Henrietta-san, what do you think of this?"_

" _Eh?"_

" _In the old world, weren't you an accountant, with a master's in business administration?"_

 _In response to Henrietta's lowering of her head (while thinking), Shiroe pressed on:_

" _I think it could work. Basically, we just need to get the money any way we can. We don't have to worry about where it came from or whose it was. At this moment, this world had no rules. There's no point in restricting ourselves by making new ones."_

 _Henrietta was deep in thought from what Shiroe had said._

' _This world has no rules. In other words, we can make up our own…we need a new rule to make money. A way to make people bring us money, and be happy doing so…'_

 _A thought suddenly occurred to the bard. One that involved the party that had just finished just a few hours ago._

" _We can do it." Henrietta said simply, emerging from her thought process. "Five million gold. We can get the money."_

" _Eh?"_

" _EH?!"_

 _Shiroe's response to Henrietta's declaration was to simply adjust his glasses, a move that Henrietta also followed._

* * *

' _Now it's time for the plan's first stage.'_ Henrietta thought to herself as she walked down the hallway of the guild hall.

* * *

There was a soft knock on the door of the guild leader's room. Hearing no response, the intruder opened the door and stepped into the dark room.

"Marie-san, I brought you a snack." Naotsugu said, holding a group of sandwiches on a plate and grinning widely as he did so. "Chief Nyanta made this sandwich himse-EH?!"

The guardian stopped himself as he saw the sight inside of the room. In the center, lying on the floor completely motionless, Marielle was covered in a few remnants of the papers that she had spent days signing and approving. All around her, throughout the room, stacks upon stacks of finished, signed, and approved paperwork were scattered around, a testament to all the torture she had gone through.

"I can't go on!" Marielle suddenly exclaimed, popping up from her motionless position on the ground and starting to roll around in childish frustration. "Stupid Umeko, I hate you!"

"Oi, come on…" Naotsugu said gently, trying to calm the cleric down.

"I can't take this room anymore." Marielle exclaimed, tears beginning to flow unimpeded down her face. "I want a bath! I want to go outside!"

"Alright, alright Marie-san…" Naotsugu said, slightly taken aback from Marielle spinning and rolling around on the ground. Setting the plate gently on the ground, the guardian continued: "Easy there…"

At the sight of the sandwiches on the plate, Marielle immediately stopped rolling around and instead grabbed on, munching down on it eagerly.

"This is great!" Marielle exclaimed as a little heart floated around above her head.

"Hey," Naotsugu started, causing Marielle to look at him curiously. "…thanks for going along with Shiro's plan."

"Eh?" Marielle replied, confused to what Naotsugu meant.

"I think it made him happy that you agreed." Naotsugu continued with his explanation. "Once again, thank you."

"…you're a good boy, Naotsugu." Marielle responded after Naotsugu had finished. Moving swiftly over to him, Marielle began stroking the guardian's head like a child while saying: "Good boy, good boy…"

Naotsugu, who was taken aback from the action, could not muster anything in response to Marielle's actions.

"I'm glad you're with Shiro-bou." Marielle said. "Keep being his friend, please."

"Y-yeah…" Naotsugu replied. After a few moments, both of them picked themselves off the ground and moved to the window, staring out at the bright night sky.

"So tomorrow's the day, isn't it?" Naotsugu asked.

"Yeah, tomorrow." Marielle confirmed.

* * *

"What kind of monster are you…?"

"…One who requests that after I send you back to your cathedral, to tell your leader, whichever one that you report to, to not lay a hand on my strategist, my friends, or this city."

"C-curse you-!"  
As her opponent exploded into a shower of sparkles and coins, Sakura sighed as she turned away to look up at the full moon in the sky. Off to the side, a figure stood in the shadows of a tree growing out of the top of the building, silently watching the girl.

"I'm afraid I'm asking too much of you once again." Sakura remarked to the figure, although she hadn't turned around to look at them.

"This is well within my forte." The figure replied. "You need not be worried about anything."

With that, the figure vanished (Skill: Hide) into the night air, leaving only the gunner (who was looking at the moon) left on the rooftop.

* * *

"Shiro-kun!"

Shiroe looked up from where he had dozed off at his (temporary) desk to find a very-pouty-and-annoyed Kanami right in front of him.

"Shiro-kun! You've been too busy with all of this behind-the-scenes work! You need to head out, explore new things, and be my bus guide!" The hyperactive monk said, propping one of her feet up on the desk and pointing off into the distance, sparkles in her eyes.

Shiroe sighed in response (It just dawned on him how used he was to Kanami's antics that he didn't even react to this one).

"So you're bored?" The enchanter simply asked. In response, Kanami slammed both of her hands on the desk (and nearly breaking the poor piece of furniture).

"Of course!" The monk replied loudly. "I've been waiting because you said you'd show me the world, but I'm reaching my limit! Let's go! Me and you! To new adventurers and new things!"

"Please don't." Shiroe quickly replied, seeing that Kanami was deadly serious (so much so that Kanami had reached over the desk and grabbed part of Shiroe's robe with the intent of dragging him off). Kanami let go at his statement and Shiroe sighed (in relief).

"But Shiro-kun~!" Kanami complained. "I'm bored! KR isn't here! There's no chaos! I've had no appearances lately!"

' _I don't know exactly if that's a bad thing if KR-san isn't here.'_ Shiroe silently thought to himself, while also wondering what Kanami meant by "appearances."

"Well, if you're really that bored." Shiroe said, keeping his voice level to avoid betraying what he was saying. "I do have something that I'd like to entrust to you. Something new, exciting, and that helps with the entire plan."

Kanami's eyes began lighting up at Shiroe's statement.

"Leave it to me, Shiro-kun!" Kanami said, overjoyed that her boredom would be coming to an end.

* * *

"SHIRO-KUN NO BAKA!"

The sound of a completely betrayed female monk's voice rang out throughout the food area of Akihabara, causing the few passing adventurers to give glancing looks in curiosity.

"Now, now, Kanami. Now's not the time to complain." Marielle said, trying to calm the angry monk down. "We have to get this running for the first part of Shiro-bou's plan, after all."

Seeing the logic behind Marielle's explanation, Kanami calmed down, albeit with a pouty look on her face. Marielle then turned her attention to directing the other members of the soon-to-be-opened stall, sporting very cute waitress uniforms, to their respective positions.

' _Shiro-kun,'_ Kanami thought to herself. _'You owe me a raid after this! Not just any raid, one of the new ones from the Pioneers patch! You, me, Nao-kun, Nya-kun, Sakura-chan and the others are charging head-first into it after all this is done!'_

With that thought finished, Kanami, wearing the same outfit as the other female members of the Crescent Moon Alliance that were bustling in the area, turned her attention to helping with the set-up of the stall.

Meanwhile, from his position quite a few floors up on a ruined building, Shiroe felt a cold chill run down his entire frame as he silently watching the proceedings that were going on below him.

* * *

A few minutes later, a group of three adventurers (one male, two female) were making their way down the street on their way to the main gate.

"Hey…before we head into the field, let's grab something to eat." The only male member, Dolce, remarked to his two companions, causing them to look at him.

"Does it matter what?" One of the girls, whose status screen gave her name away as Kawara, said as she put her hands behind her head. "Everything tastes the same, anyway."

"Don't say that…" The last girl, Isami, said with a depressed voice.

"Anyways, this place sure is deserted." Kawara remarked as the three of them continued walking.

"Of course it is." Dolce remarked.

"Well, if it all tastes the same, the cheapest food is as good as any…" Isami added at the end of Dolce's remark.

Meanwhile, at the same time going in the other direction down the road, a male and female adventurer (who looked familiarly like the ones that attacked Shiroe and his party before they went to Susukino) were walking before the male one stopped, causing the other to stop with him.

"Something smells good." The man (Smash) remarked, sniffing at the air.

"No way…" his companion (Rikopin) answered, dismissing his remark.

Just then, their attention (as well as Dolce, Isami, Kawara, and anyone else in the area) was suddenly taken by a loud, female voice that was speaking a small distance away:

"Hello, residents of Akihabara!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, the adventurers in the area found themselves looking at a blonde-haired onee-chan woman with big breasts, dressed cutely in a waitress outfit and standing in front of both a new stall and a group of other female adventurers dressed in the same style.

"For those of you who miss real food, we have good news for you!" Marielle continued with her explanation. Sweeping her hands in an overexaggurated motion, Marielle continued: "Now you can bring genuine flavor back to your table! The Crescent Moon refreshment stand opens today! Please give it a try!"

As she was saying her explanation, the other girls, mainly consisting of Serara, Kanami, Liliana, Asuka, and Ashlynn busied themselves with handing out (and in Kanami's case, forcefully handing out) flyers that advertised the stall's products and prices.

"Thank you! Thank you for your purchase!" Serara was saying every time she handed out a flyer, bowing an extreme number of times as well. In response, Liliana placed a hand gently on the young druid's shoulder.

"Serara, we haven't sold any yet." Liliana said gently, calming Serara down.

Meanwhile, Smash was busy looking through the contents of the flyer and reading them aloud to himself (with Rikopin looking over his shoulder).

"Cresent Burger, fifteen gold…one crispy chicken strip, eighteen gold…black rose tea, five gold."

"That's pretty pricy!" Dolce remarked from his position slightly behind the crowd.

"What noisy, strange people." Kawara added on.

Seemingly not hearing them, Marielle leaned in close to smash and asked in a tempting voice:

"Onii-san, care to take a leap of faith and try one?" Placing both of her hands on her cheeks and making a cute expression, Marielle continued: "You'll be amazing at how good it is."

"Ah, th-then…" Smash said, seemingly not being able to resist Marielle's salespitch. "I'll take a Crescent Burger. Or she will." He finished, pointing a thumb over towards Rikopin.

"Me?!" The female adventurer replied.

"Okay!" Marielle exclaimed happily before turning back to the stall and calling out: "One Crescent Burger, coming right up!"

"Hey, this smell…"

"No, even if it smells good…"

"…it either tastes like nothing or like salt…"  
While they were waiting, the other adventurers around the area were beginning to smell something delicious rising from the stall's direction. Behind them, even Dolce and his group were leaning in, becoming more interested in the food by the second.

Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, Marielle returned with a burger, giving it to Rikopin, who looked at it skeptically in her hand.

"Give it a try!" Marielle urged. In response, the female adventurer readied herself and took a bite of the burger.

And then another one.

And then another one.

"What is this…"

"Huh?" Smash said, holding his hand out worriedly to his companion. Ignoring him, Rikopin began wolfing down the rest of the burger.

"It tastes exactly like a hamburger!" The female adventurer exclaimed, tears freely running down her eyes.

"What?!"

"Hey, I want one too!"

"Me too!"

The scene soon erupted into pure pandemonium, with all of the adventurers present ordering food from the stall and beginning to wolf it down with gusto.

"It tastes like grilled meat and sauce!" Dolce exclaimed with a completely satisfied look on his face.

"It's so good!" Kawara concurred, tears flowing down her face in even greater quantity than Rikopin.

"We can't just stand here!" Isami exclaimed, holding her own half-eaten burger in her hands.

"Let's go tell Sou-chan!" Dolce concurred. The three of them ran off, presumably to tell 'Sou-chan' about this new development.

Watching the entire scene unfold, Marielle turned around and gave a wink and a thumbs up to a figure up on one of the buildings.

Shiroe's only response was to adjust his glasses once more before turning and walking back into the shadows.

* * *

"Um…um, this is the end of the line. Thank you for staying in line!" Serara called out, holding up a sign that stated quite literally "end of the line" while standing at the back of the quite sizeable line that formed at the Crescent Moon stall in just a few minutes. Kanami had taken on the role of 'enforcer,' that is keeping everyone in line, with gusto. She was doing it quite successfully too (mainly through the intimidation of punching one would-be rule breaker into a nearby building).

All the other girls were working inside the stall itself. However, a problem was soon arising.

"We only have one box of burgers left!" Asuka exclaimed worriedly to Marielle, who was working the front counter. She quickly placed a call to Henrietta, who was working supply behind the scenes.

"Don't worry, Marie." Henrietta replied to the call from where she was watching over Girov, Second, and Nyanta cook as fast as they possibly could (with Nyanta being the only one who didn't looked stressed at all). "I'm bringing more."

Hanging up the call, Henrietta smiled grimly.

' _This is where things will get tough. We'll go at full speed!'_ She thought to herself as she turned around to arrange the next shipment of burgers to the stall.

* * *

 **West Wind Brigade Guild Hall**

Meanwhile, at the same time, Soujiro Seta, the guild master of one of the smallest yet very powerful "large guilds" in the city, was busy taking a bite out of the hamburger that Dolce, Kawara, and Isami had brought back for him.

"This is…" The samurai said, looking down at the burger in surprise. "delicious? Who made this? How?"

* * *

 **Outside Eating Area**

"Have you tried the Crescent Burger?"

"I heard its food that actually tastes like food."

"Not just ingredient items? Seriously?"

From where he was seated, Isaac, the leader of the Black Sword Knights guild, took another bite of the Crescent Burger he was eating as he continued listening to the chatter all around him.

* * *

 **8** **th** **Shopping District Center Meeting Place**

"Hmmm…this flavor, at this price." Mumbled a young man to himself as he chowed into the Crescent Burger that he was eating. "I wonder if we can get in on this…"

* * *

 **Oceanic Systems Guild Warehouse**

"Big trouble, boss! Look at this!"

One of the guild members of the Oceanic System Guilds ran into the warehouse where the guild leader, Michitaka, was currently pouring over something on a table with his back turned.

"You're too slow on the draw, Kayu…" Michitaka replied, turning around to reveal that he had been eating the same burger that Kayu had brought in. "This is good, though." Turning back to look at the member, Michitaka started giving out orders: "Investigate the shop. Who's running it, what they use for ingredients, and how they get them. Everything you can find!"

"Right!"

As the guild member ran off, Michitaka took another look at the half-eaten burger in his hand.

"This will change the world."

* * *

 **The Rodrick Firm Guild Hall**

An older man was sitting at a table, surrounded by test vials and other scientific items, while eating a Crescent Burger, nodding to himself, and then continuing to write down his observations of the new food item.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the hunting grounds, Naotsugu, Hein, and Shoryu were just securing the latest monsters that they had captured into the back of a cart utilized to tow the monsters back to the Crescent Moon Alliance Guild Hall.

"Okay, that's enough for now." Naotsugu exclaimed as he latched the last cage shut. Turning back to face the other two, the guardian said: "Let's go, kids."

"Right!" Hein said, happy it was all over.

Shoryu, meanwhile, turned his back and started walking away.

"I will gather more." The swashbuckler simply said, causing the other two to look back. "You two go on back."

"Don't push yourself." Naotsugu responded. "There's a long way to go."

"No." Shoryu said. "I don't want to lose."

"Huh? To whom?" asked Naotsugu, not knowing who Shoryu was referring to.

"Then, let's go." Hein, who was smirking as he knew exactly who Shoryu was referring to, said.

"Will he be okay?" Naotsugu asked, worriedly.  
"He'll be fine." Hein waved off Naotsugu's concerns. Naotsugu shrugged in response.

As the cart moved away, Shoryu was busy muttering to himself.

"Watch me, Marie-san." The swashbuckler said. "I-"

Just then, he was interrupted by the sound of a monster to his right. Turning, Shoryu found himself face to face with the biggest monster that they had seen the entire day.

"A-an area boss?!" The swashbuckler yelled in complete surprise. "You have to be joking…"

* * *

"Good work everyone." Shiroe said as he saw the group that had been running the stall enter the guild leader's room. Serara and Ashlynn immediately fell on the couch, exhausted, and started snoozing, while Marielle bounded up to Henrietta eagerly (Kanami had remained by the door and was now shooting Shiroe looks that made Shiroe fear for his very life).

"So, how much did we make?" Henrietta asked eagerly.

"We earned 43, 776 gold in sales, representing 1,159 customers who spent an average of 38 gold each." Henrietta reported in response to Marielle's question. "We sold out the Crescent Burgers we prepared, as well as everything else, except the Black Rose Tea."

"Wow!" Marielle said, clapping her hands together in glee. "This is great! At this rate, we'll get that five million in no time at all!"

"We'll never make it in time…not even close, Mari-nee." Shiroe suddenly interjected, brining Marielle out of her blissful state.

"We won't?"

"Basic math shows it would take one hundred twenty days, or four months." Shiroe responded.

"But today, we turned away a lot of customers…" Marielle pointed out. "If we wanted, we could sell a lot more."

"Our total market size probably measures in the tens of thousands." Shiroe stated, holding out his hand to stop Marielle from continuing. "In Akihabara alone, there are over fifteen thousand players."

"The problem is," Henrietta continued Shiroe's statement, "no matter how high the demand, we can only serve around a thousand customers a day. Our guild just isn't big enough."

"That's it." Shiroe ended as Marielle pouted. "Money isn't the point of this plan, anyway."

"That's right." Marielle suddenly perked up. Hitting her head lightly with her fist in a 'tee-hee' motion, Marielle continued: "I was just blinded by the huge fortune in front of me. Eh he he…"

Henrietta stood up from the desk after Marielle's laugh.

"I'll go deposit our earnings in the bank."

"Thanks." Shiroe replied.

"That's perfect timing." Kanami suddenly spoke up from where she was making her way over to Shiroe. "I'll be taking Shiro-kun out for a little talk in the meantime."

Shiroe suddenly felt a sudden and dire need to run as he watched the monk, who was emitting a 'don't you dare run away' aura, approach him swiftly.

"Hey, Shiro-bou." Marielle suddenly asked. "If money wasn't the Crescent Burger's goal, does that mean you'll use your other plan?"

"I'm sure it'll work." Shiroe said simply to reassure Marielle.

"But I don't know if I can do it…"

"Just leave it to Henrietta-san." Shiroe replied once again. Looking over Marielle's shoulder to the bard who was leaving the room, Shiroe added: "Right?"

"Yes." Henrietta replied. "Leave it to me. In exchange…"

* * *

Akatsuki and Sakura had never felt so threatened in their lives.

Both girls had just returned from their respective missions (Akatsuki from one of Shiroe's and Sakura from one of her own) and as soon as they got back to the Crescent Moon Alliance's guild hall, they found themselves being approached by a shadowy Henrietta-type figure who was radiating dark energy as she walked toward them.

"Where are you going?" The Henrietta-type figure asked as she slowly continued approaching the two of them.

The two girls immediately turned around and started sprinting full speed in the other direction.

"My lord has given me a secret mission!" Akatsuki exclaimed as the two of them continued running. "Don't stop me!"

Just then, Akatsuki tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground. Sakura, not even bothering to check up on the assassin, continued running as fast as possible down the hall and around the corner.

"Shiroe-sama was kind enough to lend you to me~!" The Henrietta-type shadowy figure sang as she continued approaching Akatsuki.

The look on Akatsuki's face was enough to rival that of Kanami's earlier that day.

"My lord, you sold me out again!"

"Now…" said Henrietta, reaching behind her back and pulling out an object that she had somehow hid, "put this on!"

To her complete horror, Akatsuki found herself looking straight at an Akatsuki-sized waitress costume of what the other girls had been wearing earlier that day.

"I refuse!" Akatsuki instantly yelled out, jumping to her feet and running around a different corner than Sakura had disappeared behind earlier. "I am not a doll for you to dress up!"

Reaching out to the handle of the door at the end of that hallway, Akatsuki was suddenly met by an electric shock, causing her to pull her hand away from the knob.

"You can't enter that room." Henrietta said from where she was standing a small distance away from Akatsuki.

"What?"

Henrietta lowered the costume that she was holding up a little bit to reveal her glinting glasses before replying: "This zone belongs to the Crescent Moon Alliance, and that warehouse only permits guild members."

Akatsuki recoiled in horror.

"I guess I'll have to…" The assassin began, before opening her status menu and finding out the button for 'skills' was greyed out and unusable. "I can't use it?"

"It's useless." Henrietta said in response to Akatsuki's comment. "I set it so that skills can't be used here. I can also set combat permission individually as well. Have you forgotten?"

Akatsuki began shaking all over as the dreaded costume came closer and closer to her, held by a clearly psychotic bard who would stop at nothing to get her way.

"Curse you…!"

* * *

"So cute!"

Akatsuki trembled in complete embarrassment as she stood in front of the others, fully dressed in the Crescent Moon Café uniform. In the back, Shiroe, who was looking extremely exhausted, was making a 'I'm sorry' type of gesture while Asuka, Liliana, and Ashlynn were ogling Akatsuki.

"My, my." Nyanta said from where he was standing near Shiroe. "It looks wonderful on you, nya."

"Ah! My exhaustion is flying away!" Henrietta exclaimed from where she was kneeling on the ground, tightly hugging Akatsuki. "It's only too bad that Sakura-chan got away."

From his vantage point behind everyone else, Shiroe looked out the window at an angle at Henrietta's statement to find Sakura hiding _outside the window_ of the room, making 'please don't give me away' faces at Shiroe.

"Hey, have you seen Shoryu?" Marielle suddenly spoke up.

"Now that you mention it, he's late." Naotsugu said from where he was standing.

"He was so excited, he hasn't returned from hunting…" Hein gave his thoughts.

"R-really?" Marielle answered with a worried look on her face. "Maybe something happened…"

Just then, there was a loud crash from outside of the room in the hallway. The group quickly moved towards the door to see the source of the noise (Kanami, in the very back of the group, noticed Sakura quietly making her way back into the room from the window and joining at the back of the group).

"What is this?" Asuka asked, clearly confused at the sight that was in front of them.

"There's a boar stuck in the hall." Liliana said while sweatdropping at the same sight.

Carrying the giant boar in the very front, Shoryu was kneeling, extremely exhausted at his task.

"Marie-san, am I helping a little?" The swashbuckler managed to say before collapsing to the ground.

"Shoryu!" Marielle called out, rushing to where the boy had collapsed. Pulling him out from under the boar (which had also collapsed partially on top of him, Marielle called out his name once again: "Shoryu!"

Just then, Shoryu started snoring softly, startling Marielle.

"Eh?"

"He's hasn't rested or slept for a long time." Naotsugu remarked from where he was looking at the sleeping boy.

"He's been killing himself slowly." Hein added from his own position.

Meanwhile, Marielle was softly stroking Shoryu's head in a motherly manner.

"Thank goodness…" The cleric said softly. Turning to face the others (while continuing to give Shoryu a lap pillow), Marielle said: "Thank you, everyone. I'm blessed with such wonderful companions."

"He looks so happy in his sleep." Hein remarked. "I guess all that killing himself was worth it."

Just then, everyone's attention was drawn by a soft cough from Nyanta.

"After all that work, I'm sorry to say this, nya…" The cat-man began saying, "but giant boar tastes too strong, so I can't use it."

There was a small moment of silence from the group as they digested what Nyanta had just said. Afterwards, the group broke out into quiet laughter, prompting Marielle to shush them: "You'll wake him up!"

Shiroe looked around at all the people surrounding him, smiling at the scene (he also noticed that Sakura was missing, but considering that Henrietta was gone as well, Shiroe probably knew what had happened).

' _The Crescent Moon Alliance members are all so nice.'_ The Enchanter thought to himself.

* * *

Later on, in Hamelin's guild hall, Minori was working on leatherworking as she listened to Shiroe speak in her ear.

" _Yes…"_ Shiroe's voice was saying. _"I'm sure it's due to Mari-nee's kindness and sunflower-like smile."_

Minori paused from what she was working on in response.

" _Actually, I've made a guild of my own."_ Shiroe started talking again. _"I'll introduce them to you soon."_

Minori made an even more unhappy face as she resumed working.

" _Our preparations are progressing; hold out just a bit longer. It'll be okay, Minori, Tohya."_

* * *

"Shiroe-nii-chan said that?"

"Yeah." Minori confirmed to her brother as the two of them were sitting on a bench and table, respectively.

"I see." Tohya said.

"Is this okay?" Minori asked, causing Tohya to look at her. "Is this really okay?"

Tohya could only make a thoughtful face at his sister's words.

* * *

"Chief, did you know this?" Shiroe asked Nyanta as the two of them stood outside of one of the abandoned and ruined buildings in Akihabara. "When this was a game, these buildings were just background, but now they appear to be zones for purchase."

"So it seems, nya."

"And that isn't just all." Shiroe continued. "Every city and building in the world is for sale. But they're astronomically expensive."

"Then, should we buy Tokyo Station as the Log Horizon base, nya?" Nyanta teased. "It would suit well for Kanami as well, nya."

' _Why did you bring her up?'_ Shiroe inwardly thought, shuddering at what Kanami had put him through earlier today. Outwardly, however, the enchanter made no indication to what he was inwardly thinking, instead simply adjusting his glasses before replying to Naotsugu:

"No."

"Speaking of Kanami-chi, nya." Nyanta spoke up. "What happened earlier today, nyan? I saw Kanami-chi dragging Shiroe-chi away in the early evening."

"She dragged me to go run Heart of the Wild." Shiroe answered, referring to one of the dungeons slightly North-West of Akihabara.

"…Isn't that a level ninety dungeon for six people, nyan?" Nyanta asked.

"Yes."

"You weren't gone for very long, nyan." Nyanta remarked, remembering that Shiroe had only been gone for about an hour and a half. "I take it was a failure for the both of you, nya?"

Shiroe didn't respond, causing Nyanta to open one eye and look at him.

"…Nya?" Nyanta implied.

"…Chief, I think we both once again underestimated Kanami-san's strength and perchance for chaos and destruction." Shiroe said.

"That's just like Kanami-chi, nyan." Nyanta finished, laughing loudly at what he had just heard.

* * *

A little later, Shiroe and Nyanta were waiting atop on the bridges that ran between the upper floors of some of Akihabara's buildings.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

At the sound of a younger boy's voice, both Shiroe and Nyanta turned to see the West Wind Brigade's leader and one of the former members of the Debauchery Tea Party, Soujirou, walking towards them.

"Shiro-senpai, Master Nyanta, it's been a while."

"Hey, Soujirou." Shiroe greeted.

"Souji-chi, I hear you've started your own guild?" Nyanta said after waving his own greeting.

"Yes, it's called the Caravan of the West Wind." Soujirou replied, his status screen showing at the same time, revealing him as a level ninety samurai.

"It's a small guild, but as powerful as the biggest ones." Shiroe said, showing his knack of reading up on smaller details in his free time.

"Hoh." Nyanta said, obviously impressed.

"Not at all…" Soujirou stated humbly at Shiroe's praise. "We were just getting things set up when the Apocalypse happened."

"Since the Tea Party disbanded, I hadn't been logging in as often, nyan." Nyanta said. "Are Nazuna-chi and Saki-ojou still with you?"

"Nazuna is still with me." Soujirou half-confirmed at Nyanta's question. "She's as relaxed as ever." Soujirou made a slightly sadder face before continuing: "Saki too, but she wasn't logged in during the Apocalypse."

"Hey, so, um…" Shiroe suddenly spoke up, causing the other two to look at him. "Are you still as popular with girls as you used to be?"  
"Eh?" Soujirou was taken back by Shiroe's question, obviously not expecting it. "No, well…"

Nyanta gave a nice, hearty laugh.

"It's nice to be young, nyan." The cat-man said.

"A-anyway…" Soujirou said, trying desperately to change the subject, "why did you contact me?"

"Oh, you see…" Shiroe started, before being cut off by Soujirou.

"I thought you didn't like me." Soujirou confessed, a little downhearted at his own confession.

"Eh? Why?" Shiroe asked, taken aback.

"Because, well…" Soujirou struggled for his own sentences. "When I founded by guild, I invited you, but you didn't join."

"It wasn't like that at all." Shiroe spoke up, seeing where Soujirou was going. "It wasn't that I didn't like you." Looking away, the enchanter continued: "Back then, I just didn't want anything to do with guilds. But after the Apocalypse, I realized that I had to make a place for myself. That I have to be one of those that protects others. So I made a guild. There aren't many in it yet, and it's just getting started…but I'll only have a place for myself after I've made one for others. I finally realized that."

Soujirou stood in silence for a moment after Shiroe had finished before replying: "So what did you want from me?"

"What do you think of Akihabara, as it is now, nyan?" Nyanta asked, taking over for Shiroe.

"Hm." Soujirou folded his arms across his chest before replying with a thoughtful look. "I think it's a prison."

"A prison?" Shiroe asked.

"Not just Akihabara." Soujirou clarified. "Depending on your point of view, this whole world is currently a prison."

"I have a way to improve it." Shiroe said, cutting off the depressing train of thought. "And I need your help to fulfill it."

Soujirou made a face for a moment before completely brightening up with a smile.

"Alright!" The samurai stated, happily.

"Huh?" Shiroe said, obviously not expecting Soujirou to answer affirmatively that quickly. "Are you sure? Don't you want to hear the plan?"

"But you're busy, aren't you?" Soujirou correctly interpreted. "I can't take up your time. In addition, I'm a moron whose place is in the front row. Even if the Tea Party's best strategist told me the plan, I wouldn't understand half."

"…Soujirou." Shiroe said, smiling at the boy.

"You're a good kid, Souji-chi." Nyanta said, laughing once again.

"No…" Soujirou said humbly in response.

* * *

The next day, the Crescent Moon Alliance stall was once again back in full force. The one noticeable exception from the previous day, however, was that the entirety of the stall's employees were West Wind Brigade members instead of Crescent Moon Alliance members.

"I have more burgers!" Isami called out loudly as she set down another box of burgers in the stall.

Meanwhile, outside of the stand, Soujirou was dressed in his normal clothes, with the notable additions of a waiter's hat and carrying a notepad and quill pen instead of his normal swords.

"While you wait, I'll take your orders!" The boy called out, a genuine smile on his face while he was working.

As expected however, the boy soon found himself surrounded by girls, all clamoring to get close to him.

"You're so cute…"

"Please add me to your friends list!"

"Hey, stay in line and follow the rules!" Kawara exclaimed from where she had taken over Kanami's position from the previous day (Shiroe had chosen to keep Kanami's presence on the server a secret from Soujirou for now).

As the girls moved back into line reluctantly, Dolce leaned in closely to be able to whisper to Soujirou: "So this Shiro-senpai guy wanted you to help with the store?"

"Of course not." Soujirou replied, looking up at the bright sky. "It's far more than just this. After all, there's no end to his plans."

* * *

At the exact same moment, Shiroe was standing outside of the front of the Guild Building, with Kanami standing close behind him.

"Now, then…time for the plan's second stage." Shiroe said, adjusting his glasses while he did so.

Behind him, Kanami slammed her fists together, eagerly awaiting the next stage.

* * *

 **Done! With that said, there's no real author's note to add at the end of this, so I hope you R &R and enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one!**

 **Next Chapter: Haraguro Megane (Villain in Glasses)**


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